Match To Flame

Edited by Donn Albright

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stories—a few that have been collected a number of times, some that appeared just once and others that have remained unpublished .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.

Gauntlet's upcoming 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). Copies of Galaxy ‘51 on eBay (when they appear) sell for $150 and up.

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to become one of his classics both for scholars looking into the history of F-451, collectors interested in obscure and unpublished Bradbury material that will not see publication anywhere else, and readers of great fiction.

~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: 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• "When Ignorant Armies Clash" (unpublished novella)
• "Long After Midnight" (unpublished novella)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"

Limited to 750 signed and numbered copies

Lettered limited to 52 signed, by Ray Bradbury and Richard Matheson, and lettered copies housed in a wooden traycase