Books

1947. First Edition. Signed. BRADBURY, Ray. Dark Carnival. Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1947. Octavo, original black cloth, original dust jacket. $6800.First edition of Bradbury's important first book, signed by him on the title page.The legendary Bradbury was ""as influenced by George Bernard Shaw and William Shakespeare as he was by Jules Verne… Bradbury's poetically drawn and atmospheric fictions—horror, fantasy, shadowy American gothics—explored life's secret corners"" (Los Angeles Times). The 27 stories collected in Dark Carnival mark Bradbury's departure from publishing in pulp magazines. Their ""stylistic deftness… stands at the head of a tradition in modern horror fiction"" (Barron 4-24). ""Evocative, poetic and suffused with youthful wonder, Bradbury's tales broke with pulp conventions in their style and approach to the fantastic… Collected in his first book Dark Carnival… they mesh to form a small-town landscape in which the magic possibilities of…

Dark Carnival is a collection of short stories by Ray Bradbury, first published in 1947 by Arkham House. It was Bradbury's first published book. This collection presents stories with elements of horror, fantasy, and the macabre, as one might expect from the title and the publisher's association with H.P. Lovecraft's mythos.

Only 3112 copies were printed of the first edition.