Ray Bradbury "Match To Flame: The Fictional Paths to Fahrenheit-451 " Slipcased Signed Limited Edition No. 20 of 750 [Sealed]

Personally signed by Ray Bradbury, important for his incomparable contributions to American fiction as one of its great storytellers who, through his explorations of science and space, has illuminated the human condition.

SIGNED LIMITED EDITION. VERY LOW NUMBER 20 OF ONLY 750 PRODUCED.

Gauntlet Publications 2006. Ray Bradbury. "Match To Flame" Signed Limited Edition. Number 20 of 750. Wooden slipcase. Hardcover in dust jacket. Edited by Don Albright. Book and jacket design by Michelle Nahum-Albright. Very Fine  and sealed without any flaws. 


Ray Bradbury didn't sit down one day and decide to write his classic novel Fahrenheit-451. As with Something Wicked This Way Comes, Bradbury's tale of censorship had its roots years earlier in at least 9 short stories or novellas. While published in 1953 the genesis of F-451 can be traced back to 1944. Over the next several years Bradbury tinkered with the idea in a number of short stories, a few that have been collected a number of times, some that appeared just once and others that have remained unpublished...Until now.

Match to Flame: The Fictional Paths to Fahrenheit-451 traces the roots of F-451 in Bradbury's earlier fiction. Edited by Donn Albright, the book is a must for those who have marveled at F-451. The centerpiece of the book, is of course, "The Fireman" a novella published in Galaxy #51 (1951).

Signed by Bradbury, this is bound to become one of his classics both for scholars looking into the history of F-451, collectors interested in obscure and unpublished Bradbury material that will not see publication anywhere else, and readers of great fiction. The Lettered edition, as always, will contain a wealth of additional material including the previously unpublished short story "The Castle."

Table of Contents

Foreword by Ray Bradbury

Introduction by Richard Matheson

Historical and Critical Introduction by Bill Touponce
Texts Edited and Annotated by Jon Eller

“Reincarnate”
“Pillar of Fire”
“The Library”
“Bright Phoenix”
Facsimile: “Tiger Tiger, Burning Bright” (working title for early draft of “Bright Phoenix”, with handwritten corrections)
“The Mad Wizards of Mars”
“Carnival of Madness”
“The Mechanical Hound” (facsimile fragment)
“The Bonfire”
“The Bonfire” (facsimile, first draft, with handwritten corrections)
“Cricket On the Hearth”
“Cricket On the Hearth” (facsimile)
Ray Bradbury’s 1st Published Article:Â Blue and White Daily, 1938
“The Pedestrian”
“The Garbage Collector”
“The Smile”
“When Ignorant Armies Clash” (unpublished novella)
“Long After Midnight” (unpublished novella)
“The Fireman”

Review

From Publishers Weekly

Bradbury devotees will welcome this collection of letters, short stories and rough drafts, all of which the great fantasy and SF author now views as antecedents to his classic 1953 novel, Fahrenheit 451, about a future where books are systematically destroyed. Since Bradbury admits in the preface that some of the selections are close to primitive, readers who enjoyed such landmarks as The Martian Chronicles should be prepared for work that's less than his best. Many of the tales involve book burning, and that shared theme is a little repetitive. The high point for the casual fan is the novella The Fireman (1951), which was expanded into Fahrenheit 451. Those who don't want the plots spoiled should read the illuminating scholarly introduction and textual essay after the stories. (July)
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From InfinityPlus
A magician's box of tricks, this historically significant collection charts people and their collective obsessions, documenting how Bradbury wrangled them into shape. Editor Donn Albright sequences the rare, illuminative materials in such a way as to help us understand how key themes of censorship and love of art mixed and merged as sweet and sour as any 'Dandelion Wine,' resulting in one of the most important books on the brute, idiotic dangers of uninformed censorship and the human hunger for expression.

About the Author

Ray Douglas Bradbury (August 22, 1920 - June 5, 2012) was an American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer. Bradbury is credited with writing 27 novels and over 600 short stories. More than eight million copies of his works, published in over 36 languages, have been sold around the world.

Predominantly known for writing the iconic dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 (1953), and his science-fiction and horror-story collections, The Martian Chronicles (1950), The Illustrated Man (1951), and I Sing the Body Electric (1969), Bradbury was one of the most celebrated 20th- and 21st-century American writers. While most of his best known work is in fantasy fiction, he also wrote in other genres, such as the coming-of-age novel Dandelion Wine (1957) and the fictionalized memoir Green Shadows, White Whale (1992).

Bradbury also wrote and consulted on screenplays and television scripts. 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.

Upon his death in 2012, The New York Times called Bradbury "the writer most responsible for bringing modern science fiction into the literary mainstream." The Los Angeles Times credited Bradbury with the ability "to write lyrically and evocatively of lands an imagination away, worlds he anchored in the here and now with a sense of visual clarity and small-town familiarity." Bradbury's grandson, Danny Karapetian, said Bradbury's works had "influenced so many artists, writers, teachers, scientists, and it's always really touching and comforting to hear their stories". The Washington Post noted several modern day technologies that Bradbury had envisioned much earlier in his writing, such as the idea of banking ATMs and earbuds and Bluetooth headsets from Fahrenheit 451, and the concepts of artificial intelligence within I Sing the Body Electric.