The New Ray Bradbury Review: Number 1 2008

Preface

5 Preface William F. Nolan Fifty-seven years ago, in late 1951, I compiled and edited the first publication dealing with the life and works of Ray Douglas Bradbury. In January 1952 the Ray Bradbury Review (a 64-page pamphlet) was issued from San Diego, California, in a photo-offset edition of 1200 copies. Much later, in 1988, a facsimile hardcover edition was published, with new introductory material, from Graham Press in Los Angeles. Ray and I began our enduring friendship in the summer of 1950, shortly after the release of his Martian Chronicles. He was 29 (a month shy of 30), and I was 22. I had been reading him for seven years by then, having discovered Ray’s distinctive fiction in the pages of Weird Tales in the 1940s. My Review covered the first decade of Ray’s professional career—from 1941, when his first story was printed in Super Science Stories, through 1951. Now we are into 2008, a fresh new century, and I’m still writing about my remarkably gifted friend. With a mix of pride, love, and nostalgia I am very pleased to be up front, beating the drums for Bradbury in this preface to the first New Ray Bradbury Review. Ray has had a truly amazing career, having won the hearts and minds of millions. He is a writer’s writer. His impact over seven productive decades has been enormous. With the possible exception of Ernest Hemingway (one of Ray’s early mentors), I can think of no other author of his time who has exerted a greater influence on other writers (as well as filmmakers). We were all moved and excited by his unique stories. He’s been a guide and role model for us all, a powerful creative force to admire and emulate. No other author has covered a wider range: short stories (over 600 of them!), novels, poems, stage plays, essays, introductions, memoirs, operas, reviews, musicals, screenplays, treatments, and teleplays—encompassing book print, magazine publication (from comics to pulps to literary journals) as well as being represented in countless textbooks and anthologies. His name is now a byword around the world, and his books and stories have attained the status of timeless classics. Bradbury is more than a fine writer, he is a one-man phenomenon . He’s done it all, at a high-quality level, never writing down, never compromising. His justly earned awards are far too numerous to list here. His multiplicity of works have been widely adapted to films, stage, radio, television, audio cassettes, DVDs, and the Internet—and that is what this The New Ray Bradbury Review 6 first issue of The New Ray Bradbury Review is all about: adaptations. Beyond an extensive bibliography of adapted works, we have a Bradbury teleplay, an extended interview, and in-depth commentary by seasoned Bradbury scholars and critics: a veritable feast for readers. Special thanks and acknowledgment must be extended to William Touponce and Jon Eller, stellar talents in the Bradbury firmament—and to my dear pal, Donn Albright, the Keeper of the Keys. A great deal of well-deserved attention has been paid to Ray’s life and career since the release of my modest little pamphlet back in 1952. I’m proud to have functioned as an early pioneer in Bradbury country. With great pleasure , therefore, I urge you to turn these pages and savor the wonders awaiting you in The New Ray Bradbury Review. W. F. N. Bend, Oregon 2008 ...