Near Fine Signed Copy of "October" by Ray Bradbury

1983. Bradbury, Ray
Near Fine Signed Copy of "October" by Ray Bradbury, 1983

A beautifully illustrated booklet, stapled bright orange pictorial wraps, [12] pp., like new.
Signed on the cover by the author.

First printing of a long, early, SPOOKY Bradbury poem completed in 1940. An introduction by Walt Daugherty of Los Angeles related that "oh so many years ago, a very young Ray Bradbury" dropped by his home and they recorded the poem on "one of the old recorders that reproduced on a wax covered paper record." It was included in a "multiple record program called Shangri La Record, which was sent to several science fiction clubs active at the time" and then languished in the Ackerman archives until Walt re-found it, and his wife Mary Ellen expertly preserved and replayed it. Bradbury himself wrote the preface to this special printing, reportedly limited to 150 copies, asking readers to "treat that young man with patience and some loving care, for he hardly knew what he was doing . . . I have to accept him because he once was me." Copious Halloween-themed illustrations complement the ode to the "month sad with nights / When the goblins cross the Pleiades / Cross the plump moon" . . . "Is not October the month of months? / The soul shaking month / When all memories are resurrected"? It is, Ray. It is.