Ray Bradbury, though a celebrated author, is often shortchanged. He is valourised within one genre (science fiction) and marginalised in others (detective fiction, film scripts, poetry, and, yes, horror fiction). His importance and influence have been distorted by critics who never foresaw our present paradigm, one in which horror writers like Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith are imprinted by Oxford, and Stephen King, once dismissed as a schlock meister par excellence, is awarded the National Medal of Arts. While indeed a genre-defying giant in science fiction, Bradbury deserves a place alongside the traditional masters of the macabre.

The essays in this collection decrypt Bradbury’s horror tales and decipher their social and artistic impact. Just scratching the surface of Bradbury’s genius, these essays demonstrate that, while much remains buried in the Bradbury corpus, none of it is dead. The New Ray Bradbury Review, prepared and edited by the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies, examines the impact of Bradbury’s writings on American culture and his legacy as one of the master storytellers of his time.

Series edited by: Jonathan Eller