Author | Ray Bradbury |
---|---|
Illustrator | Joe Mugnaini |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Genre | Science fiction, fantasy |
Publisher | Doubleday & Company |
Publication date | 1953 |
Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
Pages | 192 |
ISBN | 0-435-12360-2 (Heinemann, 1991) |
OCLC | 59230566 |
813.54 | |
LC Class | PS3503.R167 |
The Golden Apples of the Sun is an anthology of 22 short stories by American writer Ray Bradbury. It was published by Doubleday & Company in 1953.
The book's title is also the title of the final story in the collection. The words "the golden apples of the sun" are from the last line of the final stanza of W. B. Yeats' poem "The Song of Wandering Aengus" (1899): [1]
Though I am old with wandering
Through hollow lands and hilly lands,
I will find out where she has gone
And kiss her lips and take her hands;
And walk among long dappled grass,
And pluck till time and times are done
The silver apples of the moon,
The golden apples of the sun. [2]
Bradbury prefaces his book with the last three lines of this poem. When asked what attracted him to the line "the golden apples of the sun", he said, "[My wife] Maggie introduced me to Romantic poetry when we were dating, and I loved it. I love that line in the poem, and it was a metaphor for my story, about taking a cup full of fire from the sun." [1]
The Golden Apples of the Sun was Bradbury's third published collection of short stories. [3] The first, Dark Carnival , was published by Arkham House in 1947; the second, The Illustrated Man , was published by Doubleday & Company in 1951.
In 1990, Bantam Books collected most of the stories from R Is for Rocket (1962) and The Golden Apples of the Sun into a semi-omnibus edition titled Classic Stories 1 . In 1997, Avon Books printed a new edition of the omnibus, titling it The Golden Apples of the Sun and Other Stories. Harper Perennial titled their 2005 edition as A Sound of Thunder and Other Stories.
The semi-omnibus editions omit three of the stories that appear in The Golden Apples of the Sun: "The Pedestrian" (1951), "Invisible Boy" (1945), and "Hail and Farewell" (1953).
Writing in The New York Times , Charles Poore reported that Bradbury "writes in a style that seems to have been nourished on the poets and fabulists of the Irish Literary Renaissance", and said he was "wonderfully adept at getting to the heart of his story without talking all day long about it and around it." [4]
Anthony Boucher and J. Francis McComas of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction found Golden Apples to be a "most uncertain reading experience… material of a curiously mixed quality; writing that is often simply and perceptively moving [and] just as often sadly lacking any particular strength or color". [5]
Imagination reviewer Mark Reinsberg called Bradbury "a gifted writer", but complained that he had "a tendency to overestimate the power of style to nourish anemic themes." [6]
Groff Conklin of Galaxy Science Fiction praised the collection, saying it included "some of the best imaginative stories [Bradbury] or anyone else has ever written. One cannot even begin to describe their delights." [7]
Edward Groff Conklin was an American science fiction anthologist. He edited 40 anthologies of science fiction, one of mystery stories, wrote books on home improvement and was a freelance writer on scientific subjects as well as a published poet. From 1950 to 1955, he was the book critic for Galaxy Science Fiction.
Expedition to Earth (ISBN 0-7221-2423-6) is a collection of science fiction short stories by English writer Arthur C. Clarke.
Untouched by Human Hands is a collection of science fiction short stories by American writer Robert Sheckley. It was first published in 1954 simultaneously by Ballantine Books, both in hardback and paperback.
The Body Snatchers is a science fiction novel by American writer Jack Finney, originally serialized in Collier's magazine in November–December 1954 and published in book form the following year.
The Undesired Princess is a 51,000 word fantasy novella by American writer L. Sprague de Camp. It was first published in the fantasy magazine Unknown Worlds for February 1942. It was published in book form by Fantasy Publishing Company, Inc. in 1951. The book version also includes the 10,000 word fantasy short story "Mr. Arson", first published in Unknown for December 1941. The book was bound together with Stanley G. Weinbaum's The Dark Other in the omnibus collection Fantasy Twin by the same publisher in 1953. The title story was also published in paperback by Baen Books in 1990 together with David Drake's story The Enchanted Bunny, under the combined title The Undesired Princess & the Enchanted Bunny.
The Tritonian Ring and Other Pusadian Tales is a 1953 collection of stories by American science fiction and fantasy author L. Sprague de Camp, first published in hardcover by Twayne Publishers. An E-book edition was published as The Tritonian Ring and Other Pasudian [sic] Tales by Gollancz's SF Gateway imprint on September 29, 2011 as part of a general release of de Camp's works in electronic form. The pieces were originally published between 1951 and 1953 in the magazines and anthologies Two Complete Science Adventure Books, Fantasy Fiction, Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy, and Fantastic Adventures. The title story, the novel The Tritonian Ring has also been published separately.
The Continent Makers and Other Tales of the Viagens is a 1953 collection of science fiction stories by American writer L. Sprague de Camp, the fifth book in his Viagens Interplanetarias series. It was first published in hardcover by Twayne Publishers, and in paperback by Signet Books in 1971 with a cover by illustrator Bob Pepper. An E-book edition was published by Gollancz's SF Gateway imprint on September 29, 2011 as part of a general release of de Camp's works in electronic form. It has also been translated into Portuguese, Dutch, and Italian. The pieces were originally published between 1949 and 1951 in the magazines Astounding Science-Fiction, Startling Stories, Future Combined with Science Fiction, and Thrilling Wonder Stories.
"The April Witch" is a 1952 fantasy short story by American writer Ray Bradbury.
"The Wilderness" is a science fiction short story by Ray Bradbury first published in the November 1952 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and included in Bradbury's 1953 collection The Golden Apples of the Sun.
Classic Stories 1: From The Golden Apples of the Sun and R is for Rocket is a semi-omnibus edition of two short story collections by Ray Bradbury: The Golden Apples of the Sun (1953) and R is for Rocket (1962).
Beyond Time and Space is an anthology of science fiction stories edited by American writer August Derleth. It was first published by Pellegrini & Cudahy in 1950. Several of the stories had originally appeared in the magazines The Century, The Atlantic Monthly, The Strand, Blue Book, Blackwood's Magazine, Weird Tales, Amazing Stories, Astounding Stories, Maclean's, The American Legion Magazine and Startling Stories. A heavily abridged paperback edition was issued by Berkley Books in 1958.
Judgment Night is a 1952 collection of science fiction short stories by American writer C. L. Moore. It was first published by Gnome Press in 1952 in an edition of 4,000 copies. The collection contains the stories that Moore selected as the best of her longer work. The stories all originally appeared in the magazine Astounding SF.
The Starmen is a science fiction novel by American writer Leigh Brackett. It was published in 1952 by Gnome Press in an edition of 5,000 copies. It was also published by Ballantine Books in 1976 under the original magazine title of The Starmen of Llyrdis. Ace Books published an abridged edition under the title The Galactic Breed. The Ace edition was published as an Ace Double with Conquest of the Space Sea by Robert Moore Williams. The novel was originally serialized in the magazine Startling Stories in 1951.
Science Fiction Terror Tales is an anthology of science fiction horror short stories edited by Groff Conklin. It was first published in hardcover by Gnome Press in January 1955; it was reprinted, unabridged, by Pocket Books in March 1955, and reprinted again in June 1971. The first British edition was published under the alternate title Possible Tomorrows in hardcover by Sidgwick & Jackson in June 1972; a paperback edition was issued by Coronet under the same title in September 1973. It was later gathered together with the Donald A. Wollheim-edited anthology Trilogy of the Future into the omnibus anthology Science Fiction Special 9.
"The golden apples of the sun" is the last line of the 1899 poem "The Song of Wandering Aengus" by W. B. Yeats.
Science-Fiction Adventures in Dimension is an anthology of science fiction stories edited by Groff Conklin, first published by Vanguard Press in hardcover in 1953. An abridged edition was issued by Grayson & Grayson in the UK, and an abridged paperback edition, with a different selection of stories from the original, was issued by Berkley Books; both abridgments carried unhyphenated titles.
Witches Three is an anthology of three original fantasy stories, edited by the uncredited Fletcher Pratt and published in hardcover by Twayne in 1952. No further editions of the anthology were issued, but each of the stories was later republished.
Shadow on the Hearth is a science fiction novel by American writer Judith Merril, originally published in hardcover by Doubleday in 1950. It was her first novel. A British hardcover was published by Sidgwick & Jackson in 1953, with a paperback following from Compact Books in 1966. Italian translations appeared in 1956 and 1992; a German translation was issued in 1982. It was included in Spaced Out: Three Novels of Tomorrow, a 2008 NESFA Press omnibus compiling all Merril's novels. No American paperback of Shadow on the Hearth has ever been published, although a book club edition appeared.
Omnibus of Science Fiction is an anthology of science fiction short stories edited by Groff Conklin. It was first published in hardcover by Crown Publishers in 1952, and reprinted in 1953; a book club edition was issued by the same publisher with the Science Fiction Book Club in the same year. Later editions were issued by Bonanza Books/Crown Publishers in 1984 and Chatham River Press in 1984. An abridged paperback version including eleven of its forty-three stories was published by Berkley Books in August 1956 under the variant title Science Fiction Omnibus and reprinted in November 1963. A two-volume British edition, also abridged, was published in hardcover by Grayson & Grayson in 1953-1954 under the variant titles Strange Travels in Science Fiction and Strange Adventures in Science Fiction; together, they included twenty-two of the original forty-three stories.
"The Song of Wandering Aengus" is a poem by Irish poet W. B. Yeats. It was first printed in 1897 in British magazine The Sketch under the title "A Mad Song." It was then published under its standard name in Yeats' 1899 anthology The Wind Among the Reeds. It is especially remembered for its two final lines: "The silver apples of the moon,/ The golden apples of the sun."