Something Wicked This Way Comes.

BRADBURY, Ray.

Item Number: 94788

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1983.

First Knopf edition, one of 75 copies made for Ray Bradbury’s personal use. Octavo, original cloth, all edges gilt. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper to Lord John Press publisher Herb Yellin, “To Herb Yellin – one of 75 copies specially bound & gold edged! With love from Ray Bradbury July 26, 1983.” Yellin’s Lord John Press had published a number of fine press limited editions of Bradbury’s works over the years. Fine in a near fine dust jacket. Jacket painting by Gray Foy.

Ray Bradbury’s follow-up to Dandelion Wine (1957) edges into darker, “more overtly Gothic and supernatural” realms of fantasy; but this shadow-filled allegory remains its author’s “most poignant evocation of the hopes and frustration of small-town life” (Clute & Grant, 133). Bradbury first conceived of this novel—expanded from his short story “Black Ferris” (1948)—as a screenplay; fittingly, then, he also wrote the screenplay for the 1983 film version that starred Jonathan Pryce and Jason Robards. Currey, 46. Fantasy and Horror 6-46