Halloween Night, 1954. A young, film-obsessed scriptwriter has just been hired at one of the great studios. An anonymous investigation leads from the giant Maximus Films backlot to an eerie graveyard separated from the studio by a single wall. There he makes a terrifying discovery that thrusts him into a maelstrom of intrigue and mystery-and into the dizzy exhilaration of the movie industry at the height of its glittering power.

Sinister mushrooms growing in a dank cellar. A family’s first glimpse at Martians. A wonderful white vanilla ice-cream summer suit that changes everyone who wears it. All those images and many more are inside this book, a new trade edition of 31 of Bradbury’s most arresting tales-timeless short fiction that ranges from the farthest reaches of space to the innermost stirrings of the heart.

Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451 is an enduring masterwork of twentieth-century American literature—a chilling vision of a dystopian future built on the foundations of ignorance, censorship, and brutal repression. The origins and evolution of Bradbury’s darkly magnificent tale are explored in A Pleasure to Burn, a collection of sixteen selected shorter works that prefigure the grand master’s landmark novel. With classic, thematically interrelated stories alongside many crucial lesser-known ones—including, at the collection’s heart, the novellas “Long after Midnight” and “The Fireman”—A Pleasure to Burn is an indispensable companion to the most powerful work of America’s preeminent storyteller and a wondrous confirmation of the inimitable Bradbury’s brilliance, magic, and fire.

He is an American treasure, a clear-eyed fantasist without peer, and a literary icon who has created wonder for the better part of seven decades. 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 between these covers 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.

Ray Bradbury’s endearing, lyrical tale of boyhood and an idyllic Midwestern summer is presented here as a full-cast audio dramatization by The Colonial Theatre on the Air, complete with sound effects and a brilliant music score.

Twelve-year-old Douglas Spaulding knows Green Town, Illinois, is as vast and deep as the whole world that lies beyond. For Douglas, summer is a pair of new tennis shoes, the first harvest of dandelions for Grandfather’s renowned intoxicant, the distant clang of the trolley bell on a hazy afternoon. But as young Douglas is about to discover, summer can be more than the repetition of established rituals that hold time at bay. It can be a best friend moving away, a human time machine that can transport you back to the Civil War, or a sideshow automaton able to glimpse the bittersweet future.

Ray Bradbury’s moving recollection of a vanished golden era remains one of his most enchanting novels. Dandelion Wine stands out in the Bradbury literary canon as the author’s most deeply personal work, a semi-autobiographical recollection of a magical small-town summer in 1928. Twelve-year-old Douglas Spaulding knows Green Town, Illinois, is as vast and deep as the whole wide world that lies beyond the city limits. It is a pair of brand-new tennis shoes, the first harvest of dandelions for Grandfather’s renowned intoxicant, the distant clang of the trolley’s bell on a hazy afternoon. It is yesteryear and tomorrow blended into an unforgettable always. But as young Douglas is about to discover, summer can be more than the repetition of established rituals whose mystical power holds time at bay. It can be a best friend moving away, a human time machine who can transport you back to the Civil War, or a sideshow automaton able to glimpse the bittersweet future. Come and savor Ray Bradbury’s priceless distillation of all that is eternal about boyhood and summer.

Ray Bradbury’s strange, magical, and unsettling story of a grown boy bent on understanding the man behind the beard, red coat, and hat at his local department store.

An adolescent boy stands patiently in the back of the long line of children waiting to sit on the lap of their local Santa Claus. Why is he there? What does he intend? What mysterious hopes does he hold for this holiday season? The answer arrives following a cryptic interaction between the two, when the reality of the boy’s awareness and the goals of the man in the red suit become clear.

“Dear Santa” by Ray Bradbury is one of 20 short stories within Mulholland Books’s Strand Originals series, featuring thrilling stories by the biggest names in mystery from the Strand Magazine archives. View the full series list at mulhollandbooks.com and listen to them all!

Ray Bradbury, the undisputed Dean of American storytelling, dips his accomplished pen into the cryptic inkwell of noir and creates a stylish and slightly fantastical tale of mayhem and murder set among the shadows and the murky canals of Venice, California, in the early 1950s. Toiling away amid the looming palm trees and decaying bungalows, a struggling young writer (who bears a resemblance to the author) spins fantastic stories from his fertile imagination upon his clacking typewriter. Trying not to miss his girlfriend (away studying in Mexico), the nameless writer steadily crafts his literary effort–until strange things begin happening around him. Starting with a series of peculiar phone calls, the writer then finds clumps of seaweed on his doorstep. But as the incidents escalate, his friends fall victim to a series of mysterious “accidents”–some of them fatal. Aided by Elmo Crumley, a savvy, street-smart detective, and a reclusive actress of yesteryear with an intense hunger for life, the wordsmith sets out to find the connection between the bizarre events, and in doing so, uncovers the truth about his own creative abilities.

The incomparable Ray Bradbury is in the driver’s seat, off on twenty-one unforgettable excursions through fantasy, time and memory, and there are surprises waiting around every curve and behind each mile marker. The journey promises to be a memorable one.

The master of American fiction returns to the territory of his beloved classic, Dandelion Wine–a sequel 50 years in the making

Some summers refuse to end . . .

October 1st, the end of summer. The air is still warm, but fall is in the air. Thirteen-year-old Douglas Spaulding, his younger brother Tom, and their friends do their best to take advantage of these last warm days, rampaging through the ravine, tormenting the girls . . . and declaring war on the old men who run Green Town, IL. For the boys know that Colonel Quartermain and his cohorts want nothing more than to force them to put away their wild ways, to settle down, to grow up. If only, the boys believe, they could stop the clock atop the courthouse building. Then, surely, they could hold onto the last days of summer . . . and their youth.

But the old men were young once, too. And Quartermain, crusty old guardian of the school board and town curfew, is bent on teaching the boys a lesson. What he doesn’t know is that before the last leaf turns, the boys will give him a gift: they will teach him the importance of not being afraid of letting go.

Ray Bradbury, America’s most beloved storyteller, has spent a lifetime carrying readers to exhilarating and dangerous places, from dark street corners in unfamiliar cities and towns to the edge of the universe. Now, in an extraordinary flight of the imagination a half-century in the making, he takes us to a most wondrous destination: into the heart of an Eternal Family.

They have lived for centuries in a house of legend and mystery in upper Illinois–and they are not like other Midwesterners. Rarely encountered in daylight hours, their children are curious and wild; their old ones have survived since before the Sphinx first sank its paws deep in Egyptian sands. And some sleep in beds with lids.

Now the house is being readied in anticipation of the gala homecoming that will gather together the far-flung branches of this odd and remarkable family. In the past-midnight stillness can be detected the soft fluttering of Uncle Einar’s wings. From her realm of sleep, Cecy, the fairest and most special daughter, can feel the approach of many a welcome being–shapeshifter, telepath, somnambulist, vampire–as she flies high in the consciousness of bird and bat.

But in the midst of eager anticipation, a sense of doom pervades. For the world is changing. And death, no stranger, will always shadow this most singular family: Father, arisen from the Earth; Mother, who never sleeps but dreams; A Thousand Times Great Grandmere; Grandfather, who keeps the wildness of youth between his ears.

And the boy who, more than anyone, carries the burden of time on his shoulders: Timothy, the sad and different foundling son who must share it all, remember, and tell … and who, alone out of all of them, must one day age and wither and die.

By turns lyrical, wistful, poignant, and chilling, From the Dust Returned will surely be numbered among Ray Bradbury’s most enduring masterworks.

From the recipient of the National Book Foundation’s 2000 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters comes “[Bradbury’s] most entertaining book in a distinguished fifty-year career.” (Time). In 1953, a young Ray Bradbury is summoned to Ireland by the brilliant but terrifying titan of cinema, John Huston. His mission: capture on paper the fiercest of all literary beasts Moby Dick. But from the moment he sets foot on Irish soil, the author embarks on an unexpected odyssey. As Bradbury works and wrangles with the renowned director to craft a workable screenplay so filming can begin he also develops a love affair with the beautiful, mysterious land of Ireland and its inhabitants. Here is the story of what happens when the visions of three creative geniuses–Bradbury, Huston, and Melville–collide, set against the beguilling backdrop of the Emerald Isle.

Travel on an unpredictable and unforgettable literary journey. Find a horrified mother who gives birth to a strange blue pyramid. Encounter an amazing Electrical Grandmother who comes to live with a grieving family. Meet an old parrot who learned over long evenings to imitate the voice of Ernest Hemingway, and becomes the last link to the last link to the great man. Each of these magnificent creations has something to tell us about our own humanity-and all of their fates await you in this new trade edition of twenty-eight classic Bradbury stories and one luscious poem.

On a dismal evening in the previous century, an unnamed writer in Venice, California, answers a furious pounding at his beachfront bungalow door and again admits Constance Rattigan into his life. An aging, once-glamorous Hollywood star, Constance is running in fear from something she dares not acknowledge — and vanishes as suddenly as she appeared, leaving the narrator two macabre books: twin listings of the Tinseltown dead and soon to be dead, with Constance’s name included among them. And so begins an odyssey as dark as it is wondrous, as the writer sets off in a broken-down jalopy with his irascible sidekick Crumley to sift through the ashes of a bygone Hollywood — a graveyard of ghosts and secrets where each twisted road leads to grim shrines and shattered dreams … and, all too often, to death.

Two drifters caught in the backwash of space wander from city to dead city, sifting the rubble for the fabled Blue Bottle of Mars-and find in it two different, equally entrancing, dooms… A young boy in Green Town, Illinois, does not marry-yet marries-his beloved eighth-grade teacher… In the hell of a Manhattan July night, Will Morgan is offered a possibly Mephistophelean proposal by which he might gain a perfect love and a magical immunity… A jealous husband who orders an exact replica of his unfaithful wife from an android manufacturing company (purpose: murder) runs afoul of the compassionate new “live robot” law… At forty-eight, seized with an overwhelming desire to settle an old score, a man journeys back into the past under the spell of his “utterly perfect, incredibly delightful idea,” only to recoil in stunned disbelief when he confronts, at last, his former tormentor… Bradbury’s imaginative field is boundless. In this book, his stories carry us from the cozy familiarity of the small-town America we lived in in Dandelion Wine to the frozen desert and double moon that have been part of our interior landscape since The Martian Chronicles. His characters range from the “ordinary”-a rookie cop, an unhappy wife on vacation in Mexico, an old parish priest hearing confession-to the quite extraordinary: the parrot to whom Ernest Hemingway confided the plot of his last, greatest, never-put-down-on-paper novel, and a woman who, in New York City in the summer of 1974, hangs out a sign reading “Melissa Toad, Witch.” Fantastic or conventional, chillingly suspenseful or hauntingly nostalgic, each of these stories has that aura of the unexpected combined with the special ring of absolute rightness that is brilliantly, uniquely Bradbury.

They’re baaaaaaaaaaaaacckkkkk!!! Rocky Coast Radio Theatre returns with yet another copious cornucopia of classic concoctions, crafted and compiled for the captive congregation (gotta love that thesaurus!). Nightmares on Congress Street, Part V offers dramatized adaptations (complete with music and sound effects) of chilling stories penned by Edgar Allan Poe, Hugh B. Cave, and H. P. Lovecraft, as well as a few additional treats. So douse the lights, snuggle up with your favorite corpse-oops! “life-challenged” person-and prepare to be thoroughly goosebumped.

A journalist bearing terrible news leaps from a still-moving train into a small town of wonderful, impossible secrets . . .

The doomed crew of a starship follows their blind, mad captain on a quest into deepest space to joust with destiny, eternity, and God Himself . . .

Now and Forever is a bold new work from an incomparable artist whose stories have reshaped America’s literary landscape. Two bewitching novellas–each distinctly different, yet uniquely Bradbury–demonstrate the breathtaking range of his undimmed talent and the irrepressible vitality of the mind, spirit, and heart of America’s preeminent storyteller.

Ray Bradbury, the master of American science fiction, offers an intriguing answer to the question that all writers dread: Where do you get your ideas?

One evening in South Florida, an author is dozing beside a swimming pool in when a stranger interrupts his peace. The newcomer, a self-professed fan and a literary agent of sorts, has a proposal for the author . . . one that may shape the course of literary history. With just a few thousand words, this charming short story from Ray Bradbury may change the way you look at classic literature forever.

“One More Body in the Pool” by Ray Bradbury is one of 20 short stories within Mulholland Books’s Strand Originals series, featuring thrilling stories by the biggest names in mystery from the Strand Magazine archives. View the full series list at mulhollandbooks.com and listen to them all!

For more than fifty years Ray Bradbury has regaled us with wonders, enabled us to view from fresh perspectives the world we inhabit, and see others we never dreamed existed.

Here are eighteen brand-new stories and seven previously published but never before collected stories — proof positive that Bradbury’s magic is as potent as ever.

Sip the sweet innocence of youth, the wisdom — and folly — of age. Taste the warm mysteries of summer and bitterness of betrayed loves and abandoned places. These stories will set your mind spinning and carry you to remarkable locales: a house where lime has no boundaries; a movie theater where deconstructed schlock is drunkenly assembled into art; a wheat field that hides a strangely welcome enemy. These are but a few of the ingredients that have gone into Bradbury’s savory cocktail. And every satisfying swallow brings new surprises and revelations.

The internationally acclaimed author of The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, and Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury is a magician at the height of his powers, displaying his sorcerer’s skill with twenty-one remarkable stories that run the gamut from total reality to light fantastic, from high noon to long after midnight. A true master tells all, revealing the strange secret of growing young and mad; opening a Witch Door that links two intolerant centuries; joining an ancient couple in their wild assassination games; celebrating life and dreams in the unique voice that has favored him across six decades and has enchanted millions of readers the world over.

“By the pricking of my thumbs … something wicked this way comes.”

Ray Bradbury has dramatized his literary classic, Something Wicked This Way Comes, into this first-class audio drama, produced by the Colonial Radio Theatre on the Air, complete with a full cast, sound effects, and original music.

“Cooger and Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show” comes to Greentown, Illinois, one week before Halloween. Two boys, Jim Nightshade and Will Halloway, soon discover the evil of this carnival, which promises to make your every wish and dream come true. But with those wishes and dreams comes a price that must be paid. Behind the mirrors and the mazes is the nightmare of a lifetime.

Few American novels written in the twentieth century have endured in the heart and memory as has Ray Bradbury’s unparalleled literary classic Something Wicked This Way Comes. For those who still dream and remember, for those yet to experience the hypnotic power of its dark poetry, step inside. The show is about to begin.

From the winner of the National Book Foundation’s 2000 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters comes a “sweet, funny.thought-provoking” (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) collection of short stories. As in his most recent major fiction collections, One More for the Road (1999) and Driving Blind (1997), Ray Bradbury has once again pulled together a stellar group of stories sure to delight readers of all ages. In The Cat’s Pajamas we are treated to a treasure trove of Bradbury gems, old and new-eerie and strange, nostalgic and bittersweet, searching and speculative-all but two of which have never been published before. The Cat’s Pajamas is a joyous celebration of the lifelong work of a literary legend.

Ray Bradbury is a modern cultural treasure. His disarming simplicity of style underlies a towering body of work unmatched in metaphorical power by any other American storyteller. And here, presented in a new trade edition, are thirty-two of his most famous tales–prime examples of the poignant and mysterious poetry which Bradbury uniquely uncovers in the depths of the human soul, the otherwordly portraits of outre fascination which spring from the canvas of one of the century’s great men of imagination. From a lonely coastal lighthouse to a sixty-million-year-old safary, from the pouring rain of Venus to the ominous silence of a murder scene, Ray Bradbury is our sure-handed guide not only to surprising and outrageous manifestations of the future, but also to the wonders of the present that we could never have imagined on our own.Ray Bradbury is a modern cultural treasure. His disarming simplicity of style underlies a towering body of work unmatched in metaphorical power by any other American storyteller. And here, presented in a new trade edition, are thirty-two of his most famous tales–prime examples of the poignant and mysterious poetry which Bradbury uniquely uncovers in the depths of the human soul, the otherwordly portraits of outre fascination which spring from the canvas of one of the centurys great men of imagination. From a lonely coastal lighthouse to a sixty-million-year-old safari, from the pouring rain of Venus to the ominous silence of a murder scene, Ray Bradbury is our sure-handed guide not only to surprising and outrageous manifestations of the future, but also to the wonders of the present that we could never have imagined on our own.

On a Halloween night, eight boys are led on an incredible journey into the past by the mysterious “spirit” Moundshroud. Riding a dark autumn wind from ancient Egypt to the land of the Celtic druids, from Mexico to a cathedral in Paris, they will witness the haunting beginnings of the holiday called Halloween.

Featuring the evocative prose and imagery of Ray Bradbury, the fine acting of the Colonial Radio Theatre players, and atmospheric music and sound effects, this story will send shivers of delight (and spine-chilling terror) through listeners young and old, long after the last candle has died in your jack-o’-lantern.

ON HALLOWEEN NIGHT, eight trick-or-treaters gather at the haunted house by the edge of town, ready for adventure. But when Something whisks their friend Pip away, only one man, the sinister Carapace Clavicle Moundshroud, can help the boys find him. “If you want to know what Halloween is, or if you simply want an eerie adventure, take this mystery history trip. You couldn’t ask for better than master fantasizer Ray Bradbury,” raves The Boston Globe.

The Illustrated Man, a seminal work in Ray Bradbury’s career, whose extraordinary power and imagination remain undimmed by time’s passage…. Ray Bradbury brings wonders alive. For this peerless American storyteller, the most bewitching force in the universe is human nature. In these eighteen startling tales unfolding across a canvas of tattooed skin, living cities take their vengeance, technology awakens the most primal natural instincts, and dreams are carried aloft in junkyard rockets. Provocative and powerful, The Illustrated Man is a kaleidoscopic blending of magic, imagination, and truth–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.

Haunting, harrowing, and downright horrifying, this classic collection from the modern master of the fantastic features: THE SMALL ASSASSIN: a fine, healthy baby boy was the new mother’s dream come true — or her nightmare . . . THE EMISSARY: the faithful dog was the sick boy’s only connectioin with the world outside — and beyond . . . THE WONDERFUL DEATH OF DUDLEY STONE: a most remarkable case of murder — the deceased was delighted! And more!

From the winner of the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters comes a brand new, never before published collection of short stories

Following the success of his recent collections, The Cat’s Pajamas and One More for the Road, Ray Bradbury has once again pulled together a stellar group of stories sure to delight readers of all ages. We’ll Always Have Paris is a treasure trove of Bradbury gems–eerie and strange, nostalgic and bittersweet, searching and speculative–all of which have never before been published. A brilliant addition to the master’s oeuvre, this wonderfully entertaining and imaginative collection is a joyous celebration of the lifelong work of a literary legend.

The best Science Fiction stories to come from such authors as Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, and Poul Anderson. Originally a spinoff from the NBC radio show DIMENSION X, X MINUS ONE continued the tradition of outstanding writing, acting, and direction for three seasons from 1955 to 1958 on NBC radio. X MINUS ONE, VOLUME ONE contains all 39 half-hour episodes from the original radio broadcasts of the 1957-58 season, digitally remastered and commercial free.

The best Science Fiction stories to come from such authors as Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, and Poul Anderson. Originally a spinoff from the NBC radio show DIMENSION X, X MINUS ONE continued the tradition of outstanding writing, acting, and direction for three seasons from 1955 to 1958 on NBC radio. X MINUS ONE, VOLUME ONE contains all 42 half-hour episodes from the original radio broadcasts of the 1956 season, digitally remastered and commercial free.

“Every morning I jump out of bed and step on a land mine. The land mine is me. After the explosion, I spend the rest of the day putting the pieces back together. Now, it’s your turn. Jump!” Zest. Gusto. Curiosity. These are the qualities every writer must have, as well as a spirit of adventure. In this exuberant book, the incomparable Ray Bradbury shares the wisdom, experience, and excitement of a lifetime of writing. Here are practical tips on the art of writing from a master of the craft-everything from finding original ideas to developing your own voice and style-as well as the inside story of Bradbury’s own remarkable career as a prolific author of novels, stories, poems, films, and plays. Zen In The Art Of Writing is more than just a how-to manual for the would-be writer: it is a celebration of the act of writing itself that will delight, impassion, and inspire the writer in you. In it, Bradbury encourages us to follow the unique path of our instincts and enthusiasms to the place where our inner genius dwells, and he shows that success as a writer depends on how well you know one subject: your own life.