A Memory of Murder
Encyclopedia
A Memory of Murder is a collection of fifteen short stories by Ray Bradbury
. They were originally published from 1944 to 1948 in pulp magazines owned by Popular Publications, Inc. that specialized in detective and crime fiction. Bradbury tried his hand in the genre but found the results unsatisfactory. He referred to the stories as "the walking wounded" in his introduction to A Memory of Murder.
Although Bradbury would acquire the reprint rights to "The Small Assassin" and "Wake for the Living" (retitled "The Coffin") for his first collection, Dark Carnival, Popular Publications held onto the reprint rights for the remaining stories after Bradbury became a successful author in the 1950s, and none of those thirteen appeared in collections of Bradbury stories over the years. When Bradbury learned that they would be published in a collection in the 1980s, he offered to write an introduction, and to add the two stories he owned, under the agreement that the book would appear in paperback only, and that no subsequent editions would be published after the first edition sold out.
Bradbury returned to the mystery genre more confidently in 1985 with the publication of his novel Death Is a Lonely Business
, and its two sequels, A Graveyard for Lunatics
and Let's All Kill Constance
.
Ray Bradbury
Ray Douglas Bradbury is an American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer. Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and for the science fiction stories gathered together as The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man , Bradbury is one of the most celebrated among 20th...
. They were originally published from 1944 to 1948 in pulp magazines owned by Popular Publications, Inc. that specialized in detective and crime fiction. Bradbury tried his hand in the genre but found the results unsatisfactory. He referred to the stories as "the walking wounded" in his introduction to A Memory of Murder.
Although Bradbury would acquire the reprint rights to "The Small Assassin" and "Wake for the Living" (retitled "The Coffin") for his first collection, Dark Carnival, Popular Publications held onto the reprint rights for the remaining stories after Bradbury became a successful author in the 1950s, and none of those thirteen appeared in collections of Bradbury stories over the years. When Bradbury learned that they would be published in a collection in the 1980s, he offered to write an introduction, and to add the two stories he owned, under the agreement that the book would appear in paperback only, and that no subsequent editions would be published after the first edition sold out.
Contents
- The Small Assassin (1946)
- A Careful Man Dies (1946)
- It Burns Me Up (1944)
- Half-Pint Homicide (1944)
- Four-Way Funeral (1944)
- The Long Night (1944)
- Corpse Carnival (1945)
- Hell's Half-Hour (1945)
- The Long Way Home (1945)
- Wake for the Living (1947)
- I'm Not So Dumb (1945)
- The Trunk Lady (1944)
- Yesterday I Lived (1944)
- Dead Men Rise Up Never (1945)
- The Candy Skull (1948)
Bradbury returned to the mystery genre more confidently in 1985 with the publication of his novel Death Is a Lonely Business
Death Is a Lonely Business
Death Is a Lonely Business is a mystery novel by Ray Bradbury published in 1985.The story, set in 1949, is about a series of murders that happen in Venice, California, then a declining seaside community in Los Angeles where Bradbury lived from 1942 to 1950...
, and its two sequels, A Graveyard for Lunatics
A Graveyard for Lunatics
A Graveyard for Lunatics: Another tale of two cities is a mystery novel by Ray Bradbury, published in 1990. It is the second in a series of three mystery novels that Bradbury wrote featuring a fictionalized version of the author himself as the unnamed narrator.The novel is set in 1954, when the...
and Let's All Kill Constance
Let's All Kill Constance
Let's All Kill Constance is a 2002 mystery novel by Ray Bradbury. Narrated by an unnamed Los Angeles writer and set in 1960, it chronicles an unexpected visit from aging Hollywood actress Constance Rattigan who gives him two death lists of once-famous people — with Constance's name on one of them,...
.