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Dark Carnival

Dark Carnival

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Dark Carnival

by Bradbury, Ray

  • Used
  • very good
  • Hardcover
  • Signed
  • first
Condition
Very Good/Dust Jacket Included
Seller
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
New York, New York, United States
Item Price
£1,401.40
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About This Item

Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1947 First edition, first printing, one of 3,112 copies. Signed by Bradbury on front free endpaper: "Ray Bradbury [underlined] / Dec 1, 1982". Publisher's black boards, titles in gilt to spine; original dust jacket designed by George Barrows, wraparound image with masks and other floating objects, titles in red to front panel and spine. Near fine book with touch of smudging to boards, a tiny wrinkle to bottom left of front board, and light toning to gilt on spine; very good unclipped dust jacket with some wear to edges and spine ends, a couple of small chips to spine ends, light soiling to rear panel. Overall, an attractive copy. A collection of his macabre short stories, Dark Carnival is Ray Bradbury's first published book and includes "The Small Assassin," "Jack-in-the-Box," "The Scythe," "Uncle Einar," "The Traveler," and "The Jar," among others. Additionally, it includes "The Homecoming," which Truman Capote famously discovered in a pile of submissions while working as an editor for Mademoiselle. Interestingly, Bradbury originally intended to title Dark Carnival "The Child's Garden of Terrors," which emphasized the nightmarish qualities of the collected fiction. Notably, this collection's carnival and childhood themes are personally significant to Bradbury as they both played a large role in his becoming a writer. According to his official biographer, Sam Weller, Bradbury began writing it after visiting a travelling circus that came to his town, where he met the eccentric Mr. Electrico, who cryptically instructed the young Bradbury to "live forever!" Bradbury claimed that he began writing voraciously shortly after this significant experience at the travelling circus. . Signed. First Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good/Dust Jacket Included.

Synopsis

Ray Bradbury's first book was the short story collection Dark Carnival issued in 1947 by Arkham House in the United States. These short stories set the tone for Bradbury's future work. His eerie, sometimes disturbing stories typify Arkham House books, and give us some insight into the young Bradbury. This book reprinted many stories previously published by Bradbury in Weird Tales of November 1944 (such as "The Jar"), and other pulp magazines of the era. Several stories saw print for the first time in this edition, however. 

Read More: Identifying first editions of Dark Carnival

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Details

Bookseller
B & B Rare Books, Ltd., ABAA US (US)
Bookseller's Inventory #
RBB014
Title
Dark Carnival
Author
Bradbury, Ray
Format/Binding
Hardcover
Book Condition
Used - Very Good
Jacket Condition
Dust Jacket Included
Edition
First Edition
Publisher
Wisconsin: Arkham House
Date Published
1947
Weight
0.00 lbs

Terms of Sale

B & B Rare Books, Ltd., ABAA

~ All items are guaranteed as described. We recommend requesting pictures prior to purchasing. ~ Any items may be returned within seven days of receipt and in the same condition as originally sent. ~ We ship with FedEx, UPS and USPS. Please let us know if you prefer another shipping. ~ New York State are required to add 8.875% sales tax.

About the Seller

B & B Rare Books, Ltd., ABAA

Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Biblio member since 2006
New York, New York

About B & B Rare Books, Ltd., ABAA

Selling First Editions and Rare Books from all centuries. Specializing in 19th and 20th century literature, modern first editions, signed and inscribed books, early children's literature, and poetry.

Glossary

Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:

Fine
A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
Spine
The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
First Edition
In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
Jacket
Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
Edges
The collective of the top, fore and bottom edges of the text block of the book, being that part of the edges of the pages of a...
Gilt
The decorative application of gold or gold coloring to a portion of a book on the spine, edges of the text block, or an inlay in...

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