THE STORIES OF RAY BRADBURY

Dinosaurs, vampires, time-warps, Green Town, lions, ghosts, Martians (of course), dreadful trips to Mexico, "The Parrot That Met Papa" Hemingway, strangely dreamy movie-houses in Ireland—100 stories by the always surprisingly versatile Mr. Bradbury. And though all but six of these tales have appeared in book form before (and though there's already been The Vintage Bradbury, 1965), this grandstand collection will no doubt inspire a burst of reevaluation and general media hoopla. In any case, Bradbury does supply an infectious, buoyantly self-congratulatory introduction that's well worth having ("I have never listened to anyone who criticized my taste in space-travel, sideshows or gorillas. When such occurs, I pack up my dinosaurs and leave the room"); and he reveals some of the early-childhood associations that supposedly gave rise to later flights of fancy. . . like a viewing of Lon Chaney's He Who Gets Slapped in 1924 (at age four!) that inspired the lions in the playroom in "The Veldt" ("I am that special freak, the man with the child inside who remembers all"). No surprises—just a major, one-of-a-kind talent in full regalia.