Vintage Bradbury V59

As tersely stated on the cover, this is "Ray Bradbury's own selection of his best stories." The Vintage Bradburycontains 22 classic stories, plus 4 chapters excerpted from his 1st mainstream novel, Dandelion Wine. His career as an author was only about 15 years old when he compiled this volume in '65 for the prestigious Vintage imprint. Like the vast majority of his collections, it has never been out of print. Bradbury's own selection of "his best" is also intriguing because most of the stories chosen are from the beginning of his career & most are quite hauntingly sad. "The Illustrated Man" relates the ultimate fate of the tattooed title character from the novel of the same name. "The Fog Horn" is the tragic love story of a dinosaur who believes the horn's wail is actually that of his lost mate. "Hail & Farewell" tells of a 43-year-old man who is fated to never look older than 12. Altho later upstaged by the truly definitive The Stories of Ray Bradbury, this remains a fitting introduction to one of the world's great fantasists & prose stylists.--Stanley Wiater Introduction (1965) essay by Gilbert Highet The Watchful Poker Chip of H. Matisse (1954) story The Veldt (1950) story Hail and Farewell (1953) story A Medicine for Melancholy (1959) story The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl (1948) story Ylla (1950) story The Little Mice (1955) story The Small Assassin (1946) story The Anthem Sprinters (1963) story And the Rock Cried Out (1953) story Invisible Boy (1945) story Night Meeting (1950) story The Fox and the Forest (1950) story Skeleton (1945) story Dandelion Wine (Excerpt) (1957) short fiction Illumination (1957) story Dandelion Wine (1953) story Statues (1957) story Green Wine for Dreaming (1957) story Kaleidoscope (1949) story Sun and Shadow (1953) story The Illustrated Man (1950) story The Fog Horn (1951) story The Dwarf (1954) story Fever Dream (1948) story (aka Night Lights) The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit (1958) story There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) story