In Ray Bradbury Unbound, Jonathan R. Eller continues the story begun in his acclaimed Becoming Ray Bradbury, following the beloved author's evolution from a short story master to a multi-media creative force and outspoken visionary.
At the height of his powers as a poetic prose stylist, Bradbury shifted his creative attention to film and television, where new successes gave him an enduring platform as a compelling cultural commentator. His passionate advocacy validated the U.S. space program's mission, extending his pivotal role as a chronicler of human values in an age of technological wonders.
Informed by many years of interviews with Bradbury as well as an unprecedented access to personal papers and private collections, Ray Bradbury Unbound provides the definitive portrait of how a legendary American author helped shape his times.
Acknowledgments / xi Introduction / 1 Part I. A Place in the Sun / 5 1 Loomings / 7 2 Strangers in a Strange Land / 12 3 Indecisions, Visions, and Revisions / 17 4 Fatal Attraction / 22 5 A Whale of a Tale / 28 6 “Floreat!” / 33 7 A Place in the Sun / 39 P art II. T he End of the Beginning / 45 8 Post-Scripts / 47 9 Invitations to the Dance / 55 10 Pictures within Pictures: The October Country / 61 11 Laughton and Hitchcock / 67 12 “The First to Catch a Circus in a Lie Is a Boy” / 74 13 Various Wines / 81 14 The End of the Beginning / 89 P art III. Dark Carnivals / 97 15 Strange Interlude: Dandelion Wine / 99 16 Return to Hollywood / 106 17 “And the Rock Cried Out” / 110 18 Berenson at Sunset / 116 19 The Unforeseen / 120 20 Dreams Deferred / 128 21 The Great Wide World / 133 22 The Dreamers / 139 23 Dark Carnivals / 144 Part IV. “Cry the Cosmos” / 151 24 Medicines for Melancholy / 153 25 Escape Velocity / 159 26 Martian Odyssey / 167 27 “Cry the Cosmos” / 175 28 In the Twilight Zone / 182 29 Something Wicked This Way Comes / 191 30 Out of the Deeps / 200 31 Machineries of Joy / 208 Part V. I f the Sun Dies / 217 32 A Backward Glance / 219 33 Stops of Various Quills / 225 34 The World of Ray Bradbury / 232 35 If the Sun Dies / 237 36 Truffaut’s Phoenix / 242 37 A Colder Eye / 250 38 The Isolated Man / 257 39 A Touch of the Poet / 263 40 “Christus Apollo” / 269 41 “Take Me Home” / 277 Notes / 285 Index / 301 Illustrations follow pages 96 and 216
"Few contemporary authors have been written about as extensively as Ray Bradbury, but no one has surpassed Jonathan Eller. In his previous study, Becoming Ray Bradbury, he captured the odd nature of Bradbury's imagination perfectly in the context of his life and age--keeping a myriad of influences and ambitions in perspective. With the publication of Ray Bradbury Unbound, Eller not only confirms his position as the great comprehensive Bradbury scholar. He has also written what may be the best single account of a major science fiction author's rise to fame and achievement." --Dana Gioia, author of Pity the Beautiful and former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts