Dark Carnival (book) - About The Stories

About The Stories

Dark Carnival was Bradbury's first published book. 3,112 copies were printed by Arkham House, under the editorial direction of August Derleth. All but six of the stories had been first published elsewhere, although Bradbury revised some of the texts.

Fifteen of the 27 stories were reprinted in "The October Country" in 1955, some in revised form. Those stories are "The Next in Line," "Skeleton," "The Jar," "The Lake," "The Emissary," "The Small Assassin," "The Crowd," "Jack-in-the-Box," "The Scythe," "Uncle Einar," "The Wind," "The Man Upstairs," "There Was an Old Woman," "The Cistern" and "The Homecoming."

Of the remainder, eight have been reprinted in one or more collections.

• "The Traveler" and "The Coffin" are in "The Stories of Ray Bradbury"
• "The Night" is in "The Stories of Ray Bradbury" and "The Small Assassin," a British-only collection
• "Let's Play 'Poison'" is in "Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales" and "The Small Assassin"
• "The Tombstone" is in "The Toynbee Convector" and "The Small Assassin"
• "The Smiling People," "The Dead Man" and "The Handler" are in "Bradbury Stories" and "The Small Assassin."

"The Night Sets," "The Maiden," "Reunion" and "Interim" have not been anthologized as of 2010.

For many years, Bradbury did not permit Dark Carnival to be reprinted, since updated versions of many of the stories were collected as The October Country. However, a limited edition of Dark Carnival, with five extra stories and a new introduction by Bradbury, was printed by Gauntlet Press in 2001.

On August 22, 2006, "The Homecoming" was published as a stand-alone short story with illustrations by Dave McKean.