Now and Forever (17 page)

 

 

The Illustrated Man

In this classic collection of tales, Bradbury's stories breathe and move—animated by sharp, in-taken breath and flexing muscle. Here are eighteen startling visions of humankind's destiny, unfolding across a canvas of decorated skin—visions as keen as the tattooist's needle and as colorful as the inks that indelibly stain the body.

Ray Bradbury's
The Illustrated Man
is a kaleidoscopic blending of magic, imagination, and truth, widely believed to be one of the Grandmaster's premier accomplishments: as exhilarating as interplanetary travel, as maddening as a walk in a million-year rain, and as comforting as simple, familiar rituals on the last night of the world.

 

“A preeminent storyteller … An icon in American literature.”

—
Virginian Pilot

 

 

I Sing the Body Electric! and Other Stories

A wonder-filled carnival of delight and terror that stretches from the verdant Irish countryside to the coldest reaches of outer space, the stories that make up
I Sing the Body Electric!
are united by one common thread: a vivid and profound understanding of the vast set of emotions that bring strength and mythic resonance to our frail species.

A horrified mother may give birth to a strange blue pyramid. A man may take Abraham Lincoln out of the grave—and meet another who puts him back. An amazing Electrical Grandmother may come to live with a grieving family. An old parrot may have learned over long evenings to imitate the voice of Ernest Hemingway, and become the last link to the great man. A priest on Mars may confront his fondest dream: to meet the Messiah. Each of these magnificent creations has something to tell us about our own humanity—and all of their fates await you in twenty-eight classic Bradbury stories and one luscious poem.

 

“His stories and novels are part of the American language.”

—
Washington Post

 

 

The October Country

Welcome to a land Ray Bradbury calls “the Undiscovered Country” of his imagination—that vast territory of ideas, concepts, notions and conceits where the stories of this collection were born. Bradbury has spent many lifetimes in this remarkable place—strolling through empty, shadow-washed fields at midnight; exploring long-forgotten rooms gathering dust behind doors bolted years ago to keep strangers locked out … and secrets locked in. The nights are longer in this country. The cold hours of darkness move like autumn mists deeper and deeper toward winter. But the moonlight reveals great magic here—and a breathtaking vista.

The October Country
is many places: a picturesque Mexican village where death is a tourist attraction; a city beneath the city where drowned lovers are silently reunited; a carnival midway where a tiny man's most cherished fantasy can be fulfilled night after night. Its inhabitants live, dream, work, die—and sometimes live again—discovering, often too late, the high price of citizenship. Here a glass jar can hold memories and nightmares; a woman's newborn child can plot murder; and a man's skeleton can war against him. Here there is no escaping the dark stranger who lives upstairs … or the reaper who wields the world. Each of these stories is a wonder, imagined by an acclaimed tale-teller writing from a place of shadows. But there is astonishing beauty in these shadows, born from a prose that enchants and enthralls.

 

“Bradbury has a light, almost ephemeral touch that belies the underlying depth of feeling in his writing.”

—
BookPage

Non-Ficton

 

Bradbury Speaks

On subjects as diverse as fiction, the future, film, famous personalities, and more, Ray Bradbury has much to say, as only he can say it. Collected within this volume are memories, ruminations, opinions, prophecies, and philosophies from one of the most influential and admired writers of our time. As unique, unabashed, and irrepressible as the artist himself, here is an intimate portrait, painted with the master's own words, of the one and only Ray Bradbury—far more revealing than any mere memoir, for it opens windows not only into his life and work but also into his mind and heart.

 

“By turns whimsical, insightful, and unabashedly metaphoric.”

—
Booklist

About the Author

The author of more than thirty books,
RAY BRADBURY
is one of the most celebrated fiction writers of our time. Among his best-known works are
Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, Dandelion Wine,
and
Something Wicked This Way Comes.
He has written for the theater and the cinema, including the screenplay for John Huston's classic film adaptation of
Moby Dick,
and was nominated for an Academy Award. He adapted sixty-five of his stories for television's “The Ray Bradbury Theater” and won an Emmy for his teleplay of
The Halloween Tree.
He has been honored with a National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, a National Medal of Arts, and a Pulitzer Prize Special Citation. Among his most recent books are the novels
Farewell Summer
and
From the Dust Returned
—selected as one of the Best Books of the Year by the
Los Angeles Times
—and
The Cat's Pajamas,
a story collection. Mr. Bradbury lives in Los Angeles.

 

www.raybradbury.com

 

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www.AuthorTracker.com
for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.

Books by Ray Bradbury

Ahmed and the

Oblivion Machines

Bradbury Speaks

Bradbury Stories

The Cat's Pajamas

Dandelion Wine

Dark Carnival

Death Is a Lonely Business

Driving Blind

Fahrenheit 451

Farewell Summer

From the Dust Returned

The Golden Apples of the Sun

A Graveyard for Lunatics

Green Shadows, White Whale

The Halloween Tree

The Illustrated Man

I Sing the Body Electric!

Journey to Far Metaphor

Kaleidoscope

Let's All Kill Constance

Long After Midnight

The Machineries of Joy

The Martian Chronicles

A Medicine for Melancholy

Now and Forever

The October Country

One More for the Road

One Timeless Spring

Quicker Than the Eye

R Is for Rocket

S Is for Space

Something Wicked This Way Comes

The Stories of Ray Bradbury

The Toynbee Convector

When Elephants Last in the Dooryard Bloomed

Yestermorrow

Zen in the Art of Writing

Copyright

This book was originally published in hardcover September 2007 by William Morrow, an Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

 

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

 

An Imprint of
HarperCollins
Publishers
10 East 53rd Street
New York, New York 10022-5299

 

Copyright © 2007 by Ray Bradbury
ISBN 978-0-06-113157-8
Epub Edition © April 2013 ISBN: 9780062242143

 

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks.

 

HarperCollins® and Harper ® are registered trademarks of HarperCollins Publishers.

 

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