BAUMAN RARE BOOKS 24 “At The Head Of A Tradition”: First Edition Of Ray Bradbury’s First Book, Signed By Him 30BRADBURY, Ray. Dark Carnival. Sauk City, Wisconsin, 1947. Octavo, original black cloth, dust jacket, custom slipcase. $6800 First edition of Bradbury’s important first book, boldly signed by the author. The legendary Bradbury was “as influenced by George Bernard Shaw and William Shakespeare as he was by Jules Verne… Bradbury’s poetically drawn and atmospheric fictions—horror, fantasy, shadowy American gothics—explored life’s secret corners” (Los Angeles Times). The 27 stories collected in Dark Carnival mark Bradbury’s departure from publishing in pulp magazines. Their “stylistic deftness… stands at the head of a tradition in modern horror fiction” (Barron 4-24). “Evocative, poetic and suffused with youthful wonder, Bradbury’s tales broke with pulp conventions in their style and approach to the fantastic… Collected in his first book Dark Carnival… they mesh to form a small-town landscape in which the magic possibilities of ordinary life and the banality of the fantastic are indistinguishable from one another” (Clute & Grant, 132). Book in fine condition, in an extremely good dust jacket with minor rubbing to extremities. An attractive signed copy. “This Dandelion!”: Dandelion Wine, Colorfully Inscribed By Ray Bradbury With A Sketch Of A Dandelion 31BRADBURY, Ray. Dandelion Wine. Garden City, 1957. Octavo, original yellow cloth, dust jacket, custom clamshell box. $4900 First edition of Bradbury’s semi-autobiographical novel, boldly inscribed by him using several colors of pencil: “For Matthew Stiller!?!!! This dandelion! [sketch of dandelion] With good wishes! from Ray Bradbury, Oct. 4, ‘92.” “Dandelion Wine is one of Bradbury’s autobiographical fantasies, a novel that fully embodies Bradbury’s love for creating eccentric characters and exploring their lives. The novel is more autobiographical than fantasy (unlike its companion, Something Wicked This Way Comes), with the majority of events being daily moments of life in the Midwest in the late 1920s. The main character, Douglas Spaulding, is based on Bradbury… Considered one of Bradbury’s strongest works, the novel has received a good deal of acclaim and critical attention” (Reid, 63). Currey, 44. Book and dust jacket near-fine. An excellent inscribed copy.
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