NEWS | Ray Bradbury Tribute Anthology

Tribute anthologies have been hot recently with Jack Vance (Songs of the Dying Earth) and Frederik Pohl (Gateways) both getting the treatment.  And now it is Ray Bradbury's turn. According to The British Fantasy Society Live Forever: An Anthology of all New Stories in Honor of Ray Bradbury, edited by Sam Weller and Mort Castle with Bradbury doing the introduction is tentatively set for July, 2012 from William Morrow. Weller is actually a biographer of Bradbury's penning The Bradbury Chronicles and Castle is a well-known Horror writer.

Contributors include Neil Gaiman, Audrey Niffenegger, Joe Hill, Alice Hoffman, David Morrell, Tom Monteleone, Lee Martin, Ramsey Campbell, Robert McCammon, Dan Chaon, Harlan Ellison, Margaret Atwood, Joe Meno, Dean Koontz and a few others to be named.

As if the first three names weren't enough we'll also have Ellison, Campbell, and Chaon? That is a heavy hitting line-up. Lee Martin also announced the collection going into the origin of the anthology title:

The title comes from something that happened to Bradbury when he was a boy. He went to a carnival to see a magician named Mr. Electrico. This man sat in an electric chair and was electrocuted at every performance. As the electricity shot through his body, he raised a sword and knighted all the kids sitting in the front row near his platform. Here’s how Bradbury describes what happened when it was his turn to be knighted: “When he reached me, he pointed his sword at my head and touched my brow. The electricity rushed down the sword, inside my skull, made my hair stand up and sparks fly out of my ears. He then shouted at me, ‘Live forever!’”

Here’s a link to the rest of Bradbury’s story about how Mr. Electrico gave him a future with his exhortation and also, the next day, a past when Bradbury returned to the carnival and Mr. Electrico claimed that he, Bradbury, was the reincarnated spirit of an old friend

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