Library Addition: Signed First of Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles

This is a key acquisition, even though the condition of the copy is a bit lower than what I usually settle for. But this a keystone Ray Bradbury classic, a huge influence on me, personally, and just-slightly-better copies tend to go for one to two grand.

Bradbury, Ray. The Martian Chronicles. Doubleday, 1950. First edition hardback (stated, as per Currey (1979), page 56), a Very Good+ copy with faint crease and fading to spine, non-authorial ownership plate on inside front cover, foxing on inside covers, FFE and RFE, slight bumping at head and heel and very slight wear at points, in a Very Good corner-clipped dust jacket with 1/2″ chip at heel join, 1/4″ shallow chipping to head, 1/8″ shallow chipping at heel and points, and age-darkening to spine. With a Ray Bradbury signature plate laid in. Weist, Bradbury: An Illustrated Life, pages 50-52. Pringle, SF 100 3. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy (1), page 39. Barron, Anatomy of Wonder 4, 3-32. Magill, Survey of Science Fiction Literature, Volume 3, pages 1348-1352. A great book and a vitally important science fiction keystone. Bought for $334.56/

I generally stay away from chipped and corner-clipped dust jackets, but I haven’t seen a copy of this title in my price range before…

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One Response to “Library Addition: Signed First of Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles”

  1. Jason Marchi says:

    Hello, you sound like an avid Ray Bradbury collector? I became very close to Ray the last 13 of his life and during that time he gave me original manuscripts, carbons, original book test art, signed first editions from his library, and letters from luminaries. I’m going to be selling it all (20 bankers boxes worth) through an auction house later this year, OR to a donor who will buy the archive to keep it intact for the Center For Ray Bradbury studies at Indiana University. Send me an email if you want to know more. My personal website has a list of BRADBURY related books I worked on under the BOOKS tab.

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