From the Dust Returned
Encyclopedia
From the Dust Returned is a fix-up
fantasy novel by Ray Bradbury
. The novel is largely comprised from a series of short stories which Bradbury had written decades earlier, centering around a family of Illinois-based ghosts named the Elliotts. The stories originally appeared in the magazines The Saturday Evening Post
, Mademoiselle
and Weird Tales
as well as Bradbury's earlier collections Dark Carnival and The Toynbee Convector
. Two of the stories, "The Homecoming" and "Uncle Einar", were also anthologized in The October Country
.
The novel features a cover illustration by Charles Addams
, originally created to accompany the publication of the first of the Elliott stories, "The Homecoming", in Mademoiselle in 1946. (The Elliotts bear a strong resemblance to Addams' own Addams Family characters, and Bradbury had once discussed collaborating with Addams on an Elliott Family history, although that project never came to fruition.)
Fix-up
A fix-up is a novel created from short stories that may or may not have been initially related or previously published. The stories may be edited for consistency, and sometimes new connecting material—such as a frame story—is written for the new novel. The term was coined by the science fiction...
fantasy novel by Ray Bradbury
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...
. The novel is largely comprised from a series of short stories which Bradbury had written decades earlier, centering around a family of Illinois-based ghosts named the Elliotts. The stories originally appeared in the magazines The Saturday Evening Post
The Saturday Evening Post
The Saturday Evening Post is a bimonthly American magazine. It was published weekly under this title from 1897 until 1969, and quarterly and then bimonthly from 1971.-History:...
, Mademoiselle
Mademoiselle (magazine)
Mademoiselle was an influential women's magazine first published in 1935 by Street and Smith and later acquired by Condé Nast Publications....
and Weird Tales
Weird Tales
Weird Tales is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine first published in March 1923. It ceased its original run in September 1954, after 279 issues, but has since been revived. The magazine was set up in Chicago by J. C. Henneberger, an ex-journalist with a taste for the macabre....
as well as Bradbury's earlier collections Dark Carnival and The Toynbee Convector
The Toynbee Convector (collection)
The Toynbee Convector is a short story collection by Ray Bradbury. Several of the stories are original to this collection. Others originally appeared in the magazines Playboy, Omni, Gallery, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Woman's Day, and Weird Tales.-Contents:* "The Toynbee Convector"*...
. Two of the stories, "The Homecoming" and "Uncle Einar", were also anthologized in The October Country
The October Country
The October Country is a 1955 collection of nineteen macabre short stories by Ray Bradbury. It reprints fifteen of the twenty-seven stories of his 1947 collection Dark Carnival, and adds four more of his stories previously published elsewhere....
.
The novel features a cover illustration by Charles Addams
Charles Addams
Charles "Chas" Samuel Addams was an American cartoonist known for his particularly black humor and macabre characters...
, originally created to accompany the publication of the first of the Elliott stories, "The Homecoming", in Mademoiselle in 1946. (The Elliotts bear a strong resemblance to Addams' own Addams Family characters, and Bradbury had once discussed collaborating with Addams on an Elliott Family history, although that project never came to fruition.)
Contents
- "The April WitchThe April Witch-Reception:Boucher and McComas described the story as one of Bradbury's "reassuringly lovely flights of fancy."-Publication history:The story was included in several of Bradbury's short story collections:* The Golden Apples of the Sun, 1953...
" - "The Homecoming"
- "West of October"
- "On the Orient North"
- "Uncle Einar"
- "The Traveler"
- "From the Dust Returned"