Becoming Ray Bradbury

27. The Illinois Novel

160 | | 5 27 The Illinois Novel Bradbury was now represented by Don Congdon and the Matson Agency, but a few of his earlier direct negotiations finally brought in some much-needed cash. In October he received nearly $200 from the New Yorker for “I See You Never,” a story from his Figueroa Street tenement days that had been declined by the New Yorker more than two years earlier. And there was luck on the home front as well; on November 13, 1947, a Mel Dinelli adaptation of his unpublished noir ventriloquist fantasy “Riabouchinska” marked Bradbury’s debut on the CBS radio show Suspense. Bill Spier soon bought two more unpublished Bradbury stories, and adaptations aired during the show’s 1948 summer and fall seasons. “The Screaming Woman,” the story of a woman buried alive told from the point of view of the children who hear her but cannot get anyone to believe them, starred Agnes Moorhead and Margaret O’Brien. “Summer Night” was even more suspenseful—Bradbury’s old high-school mood piece had now fully emerged as the story of a woman who must find her way home through the Green Town ravine on a night when the Lonely One has already killed once. Although Bradbury was pleased with the Suspense adaptation, he regarded the piece as a story-chapter for the new Illinois novel. In fact, Bradbury’s new professional relationship with Congdon was most important for the opportunity it provided to develop and market the Illinois novel. This project, focusing on the vast emotional and intellectual gulfs that separate children from adults, was growing out of the stories he was beginning to write about his Waukegan childhood. The earliest of these was “The Night” (1943), another variation on his ravine mood piece that finally reached print in the July 1946 issue of Weird Tales. By this time Bradbury had begun to outline the novel and write brief mood pieces or vignettes of the people and neighborhoods that he was loosely adapting from his childhood memories. It’s clear from these surviving but very fragmentary concept materials that the thematic inspiration derives from one of Bradbury’s favorites—Christopher Morley’s 1925 novel, Thunder on the Left. In interviews, Bradbury has occasionally acknowledged the impact of Thunder on the Left and has mentioned (without elaboration) that it was indeed a source of inspiration for his first Green Town novel. He had been impressed with the i-xvi_1-328_Elle.indd 160 6/27/11 2:51 PM Chapter 27. The Illinois Novel | 161 internal monologues and reveries of Morley’s novel when he first encountered it around 1940. The first chapter of Thunder on the Left centers on a child’s birthday party in a turn-of-the-century vacation home on an island off the coast of New England. The children make a pact never to grow old, but there are dissenters among them. Martin, celebrating his tenth birthday, takes the next logical step: they must find out what the adult world is really like, “that Other World, the thrillingly exciting world of Parents, whose secrets are so cunningly guarded.”1 Martin and the other children quickly settle on the language of war to describe their strategy: “We must find out,” Martin said, suddenly feeling in his mind the expanding brightness of an idea. “It’ll be a new game. We’ll all be spies in the enemy’s country, we’ll watch them and see exactly how they behave, and bring in a report.” “Get hold of their secret codes, and find where their forces are hidden,” cried Ben, who liked the military flavor of this thought. “I think it’s a silly game,” said Phyllis. “You can’t really find out anything; and if you did, you’d be punished. Spies always get caught.” “Penalty of death!” shouted the boys, elated. It’s harder than being a real spy,” said Martin. You can’t wear the enemy’s uniform and talk their language. But I’m going to do it, anyhow.” (12) Martin’s decision becomes his unspoken birthday wish as he blows out the candles on his cake, and the rest of the novel reveals the consequences. Twentyone years later, as adults, some of the same characters return to the vacation house for a weekend with their own spouses and children. “Mr. Martin,” a handsome and engaging but somewhat childlike stranger, unexpectedly arrives, and transforms the weekend into a confusion of adult passions and childhood...