In a career spanning more than seventy years, Ray Bradbury inspired generations of readers to dream, think, and create. A prolific author of hundreds of short stories and close to fifty books, as well as numerous poems, essays, operas, plays, and screenplays, Bradbury was one of the most celebrated writers of our time. His groundbreaking works include Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, Dandelion Wine, and Something Wicked This Way Comes. An Emmy Award winner for his teleplay The Halloween Tree and an Academy Award nominee, he was the recipient of the 2000 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, the 2004 National Medal of Arts, and the 2007 Pulitzer Prize Special Citation, among many honors.
"[B]eautiful imagery and well-crafted prose." -- Chicago Sun-Times"An intriguing coda to one of Bradbury's classics. " -- Kirkus Reviews"Creepier than [Dandelion Wine] but retains the elegiac tone and lovely descriptions of 1920s boyhood." -- Library Journal"A touching meditation on memories, aging, and the endless cycle of birth and death." -- Booklist"Poignant, wise...Bradbury's mature but fresh return to his beloved early writing conveys a depth of feeling." -- Publishers Weekly"Bradbury remains a master of inspired storytelling . . . The long-awaited, rewarding conclusion to an American classic." -- Rocky Mountain News
This poignant, wise but slight "extension" of the indefatigable Bradbury's semiautobiographical Dandelion Wine picks up the story of 12-year-old Douglas Spaulding in October of 1928, when the warmth of summer still clings to Green Town, Ill. As in his episodic 1957 novel, Bradbury evokes the rhythms of a long-gone smalltown America with short, swift chapters that build to a lyrical meditation on aging and death. Playing at war, the imaginative Douglas and his friends target the town's elderly men, and the outraged 81-year-old bachelor Calvin C. Quartermain attempts to organize a counterattack against the boys' mischief. Rebelling against their elders-and the specter of age and death-Douglas and his gang steal the old men's chess pieces before deciding that Time, as embodied by the courthouse clock, is their true nemesis. The story turns on a gift of birthday cake that triggers Douglas and Quartermain's mutual recognition: "He had seen himself peer forth from the boy's eyes." Soon thereafter, Douglas's first kiss and new, acute awareness of girls serves as the harbinger of his inevitable adulthood. Bradbury's mature but fresh return to his beloved early writing conveys a depth of feeling. Look for a Q&A with Bradbury in the Aug. 21 issue. (Oct.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
"[B]eautiful imagery and well-crafted prose." -- Chicago Sun-Times"An intriguing coda to one of Bradbury's classics. " -- Kirkus Reviews"Creepier than [Dandelion Wine] but retains the elegiac tone and lovely descriptions of 1920s boyhood." -- Library Journal"A touching meditation on memories, aging, and the endless cycle of birth and death." -- Booklist"Poignant, wise...Bradbury's mature but fresh return to his beloved early writing conveys a depth of feeling." -- Publishers Weekly"Bradbury remains a master of inspired storytelling . . . The long-awaited, rewarding conclusion to an American classic." -- Rocky Mountain News
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