Quicker Than the Eye - Hardcover

Bradbury, Ray

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0380973804 ISBN 13: 9780380973804

Publisher: William Morrow, 1996

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

In a career spanning more than seventy years, Ray Bradbury, who died on June 5, 2011 at the age of 91, 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, teleplays, 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. He wrote the screen play 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 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.

Throughout his life, Bradbury liked to recount the story of meeting a carnival magician, Mr. Electrico, in 1932. At the end of his performance Electrico reached out to the twelve-year-old Bradbury, touched the boy with his sword, and commanded, "Live forever!" Bradbury later said, "I decided that was the greatest idea I had ever heard. I started writing every day. I never stopped."

From Kirkus Reviews

A collection of 21 tales from the Grandfather fantasist--none of which have appeared in book form before, though the publishers disdain to tell us where they have appeared before, if they have, or when they were written. Also, the fantasy elements are mostly small or absent altogether; and--a Bradbury trademark--many of the stories lean heavily on nostalgia, or come drenched in sentiment: imaginary children, ghosts, fairgrounds and magic shows, dead dogs, mad inventors, mysterious doorways, books, graveyards, adolescence. Other tales offer startling ideas that unfortunately are obscured or damaged by poor or eccentric dramatizations: a U-boat captain turned psychoanalyst; the world's architects forming a grand historical conspiracy to build cities where they'll inevitably be destroyed, thus ensuring an endless supply of work; a Victorian pastiche about a vampire predator; and a Dorian Gray variant. Finally, still sentimental but closer to vintage Bradbury, are ``Last Rites,'' wherein a time traveler enters the past to reassure authors neglected during their own lifetimes (Melville, Poe, Wilde) that posterity will celebrate their work; and ``The Very Gentle Murders,'' a funny, edgy, ironic tale of a cackling octogenarian couple dodderingly scheming to murder each other. So-so material for the most part; fans hoping for another Martian Chronicles or October Country face certain disappointment. (First printing of 50,000; author tour) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0380973804
• ISBN 13: 9780380973804
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 261