''Long After Midnight'' is a short story collection by American writer
Ray Bradbury
Ray Douglas Bradbury (; August 22, 1920June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of modes, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery, and ...
. Several of the stories are original to this collection. Others originally appeared in the magazines ''
Planet Stories
''Planet Stories'' was an American pulp science fiction magazine, published by Fiction House between 1939 and 1955. It featured interplanetary adventures, both in space and on some other planets, and was initially focused on a young readershi ...
'', ''
Collier's Weekly
''Collier's'' was an American general interest magazine founded in 1888 by Peter Fenelon Collier. It was launched as ''Collier's Once a Week'', then renamed in 1895 as ''Collier's Weekly: An Illustrated Journal'', shortened in 1905 to ''Colli ...
'', ''
Playboy
''Playboy'' is an American men's Lifestyle magazine, lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from H ...
'', ''
Esquire
Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title.
In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentlema ...
'', ''Welcome Aboard'', ''
Other Worlds'', ''
Cavalier
The term Cavalier () was first used by Roundheads as a term of abuse for the wealthier royalist supporters of King Charles I and his son Charles II of England during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration (1642 – ). ...
'', ''
Gallery
Gallery or The Gallery may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Art gallery
** Contemporary art gallery
Music
* Gallery (band), an American soft rock band of the 1970s
Albums
* ''Gallery'' (Elaiza album), 2014 album
* ''Gallery'' (Gr ...
'', ''
McCall's
''McCall's'' was a monthly American women's magazine, published by the McCall Corporation, that enjoyed great popularity through much of the 20th century, peaking at a readership of 8.4 million in the early 1960s. It was established as a small-f ...
'', ''
Woman's Day
''Woman's Day'' is an American women's monthly magazine that covers such topics as homemaking, food, nutrition, physical fitness, physical attractiveness, and fashion. The print edition is one of the Seven Sisters magazines. The magazine was f ...
'', ''
Harper's'', ''Charm'', ''
Weird Tales
''Weird Tales'' is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine founded by J. C. Henneberger and J. M. Lansinger in late 1922. The first issue, dated March 1923, appeared on newsstands February 18. The first editor, Edwin Baird, pri ...
'', ''Eros'', and ''
Penthouse''.
Contents
* "The Blue Bottle"
* "One Timeless Spring"
* "The Parrot Who Met Papa"
* "The Burning Man"
* "A Piece of Wood"
* "The Messiah"
* "G.B.S.-Mark V"
* "The Utterly Perfect Murder"
* "Punishment Without Crime"
* "Getting Through Sunday Somehow"
* "Drink Entire: Against the Madness of Crowds"
* "Interval in Sunlight"
* "A Story of Love"
* "The Wish"
* "Forever and the Earth"
* "The Better Part of Wisdom"
* "Darling Adolf"
* "The Miracles of Jamie"
* "The October Game"
* "The Pumpernickel"
* "Long After Midnight"
* "Have I Got a Chocolate Bar for You!"
Reception
Reviews
Writing in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', Gerald Jonas gave the collection a scathing review, saying that the stories "reveal Bradbury at his worst -- dressing up the sentimental cliches of mass magazine fiction in various s.f. or fantasy disguises." Jonas noted that ''Long After Midnight'' contained little recent work, but was mostly decades-old fiction passed over when compiling prior collections.
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. new ...
books editor Phil Thomas, however, praised the collection as "filled with the sense of wonder that marks so much of Bradbury's work."
Awards
It was nominated for the 1977
World Fantasy Award
The World Fantasy Awards are a set of awards given each year for the best fantasy fiction published during the previous calendar year. Organized and overseen by the World Fantasy Convention, the awards are given each year at the eponymous ann ...
s category of "Best Collection/Anthology".
Adaptations
Television miniseries
In 1979
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
partnered with the
BBC to commission ''
The Martian Chronicles
''The Martian Chronicles'' is a science fiction fix-up novel, published in 1950, by American writer Ray Bradbury that chronicles the exploration and settlement of Mars, the home of indigenous Martians, by Americans leaving a troubled Earth th ...
'', a three-episode miniseries adaptation running just over four hours. It was written by
Richard Matheson
Richard Burton Matheson (February 20, 1926 – June 23, 2013) was an American author and screenwriter, primarily in the fantasy, horror, and science fiction genres.
He is best known as the author of '' I Am Legend'', a 1954 science fictio ...
and was directed by
Michael Anderson. The story "The Messiah" was incorporated into the mini-series and rewritten to be part of "The Martian" segment.
Television adaptations of individual stories
The cable television series ''
The Ray Bradbury Theater
''The Ray Bradbury Theater'' is an anthology series that ran for three seasons on First Choice Superchannel in Canada and HBO in the United States from 1985 to 1986, and then on USA Network, running for four additional seasons from 1988 to 19 ...
'' adapted two individual short stories from ''Long After Midnight'', "The Utterly Perfectly Murder" and "Punishment Without Crime".
Ray Bradbury Theater Episode Guide
/ref>
The 1985 '' The Twilight Zone revival'' adapted one short story from ''Long After Midnight'', " The Burning Man".
References
Sources
*
*
External links
*
*
{{Ray Bradbury, state=collapsed
1976 short story collections
Short story collections by Ray Bradbury