Summer Morning, Summer Night
Subterranean Press, October 2008.
ISBN: 978-1-59606-202-3

SMSN: Limited Introductory Offer?

Here’s a book in need of an introduction. And Jon Eller wrote an extended one, but it doesn’t appear in the 2008 Subterranean Press edition. Somehow this is fitting. Late-period Bradbury is all about limited editions. Summer Morning, Summer Night was first offered in December 2007 by PS Publishing (UK) as part of an illustrated, two-volume, slipcased anniversary edition of Dandelion Wine with an introduction by Stephen King. The print run was 100, the price $750. It went out of print before most Bradbury fans had even heard of it. Not to fear; there is another version.

On Halloween 2008, Subterranean Press reissued a single-volume Summer Morning, Summer Night Deluxe Hardcover Edition for approximately $35. "Deluxe" in this case means first U.S. edition, brown cloth boards, 176 pages in two-color printing, and a cover illustration by Vincent Chong. According to the Subterranean website there are only 2000 copies of the Deluxe Hardcover Edition, making this book more rare than Dark Carnival.

But wait! There’s less. Stephen King's introduction was obviously for Dandelion Wine only, so it doesn’t appear in the Subterranean book. But what about Jon Eller’s informative introduction to the now-inexplicable stand-alone volume called Summer Morning, Summer Night? Oh, that? That was for the other version. The special set limited for HD polymorphic telepaths (lettered edition, region 2). You get the idea. Books are becoming more like DVDs every day. It’s all about "cover art" and "deleted scenes" and finding new ways to use the word new. The target audience is "in the know" so why waste time explaining the product to Joe Consumer? Listen up, Joe. I won't do you that way.

Many years ago Bradbury planned an autobiographical novel about his childhood in Waukegan, Illinois. He called himself Douglas Spaulding and the village Green Town. The project took years. The contents were rearranged. Some chapters were published as short stories in magazines. Stories became versions. The working title was changed. The Small Assassins, The Blue Remembered Hills and Summer Morning, Summer Night were a few of the proposed titles. In 1957 a shortened version was published as Dandelion Wine, and for years this was Bradbury’s autobiographical Green Town novel. But there were still leftover stories, bits of manuscript, and alternate versions. In fact, an entire plot-line was dropped when Bradbury shortened the project in 1957. Bradbury always meant to return to Green Town for a sequel.

In 2006 the sequel was published as Farewell Summer. It resurrected the framing plot-line (Youth vs Time), but failed to hang much weight on it. The novel was skimpy and neglected to incorporate such Green Town classics as "Miss Bidwell" and "These Things Happen." So Bradbury scholars Donn Albright and Jon Eller put together a collection of the leftovers, using one of Ray’s old working titles to tie it all together. Summer Morning, Summer Night is a collection of material that never quite made it into Bradbury's Green Town novels. Some are complete stories and some are fragments, but all are somehow connected to the autobiographical novel Bradbury had always meant to write.

The first ten stories are reprints available in other collections, though some may be alternate versions. Keep your eyes open. These are followed by six would-be stories, never before seen. They are not polished masterpieces, but "Love Potion" seems one rewrite away from classic status. Then there are eleven fragments, some of them no more than a paragraph long--snippets of dialog and descriptive passages in Bradbury’s high style.

The notes hereafter will refer to Bradbury’s unrealized project as "the planned Green Town novel." The subsequently published books, although technically spin-offs, will be referred to by their proper titles. Pray there are no further versions.

Summary: Hattie, a lonely schoolteacher of thirty-five, prowls the night streets in her negligee and shakes her fist at a town that never noticed her charms--while secretly hoping that someone will.

Comments: This story's inclusion in Summer Morning, Summer Night makes it an official Green Town story. The town isn't named, and none of the characters are especially familiar, but the boarding house, courthouse clock, and ravine are central elements in Dandelion Wine and Farewell Summer.

Summary: Mother and Father are upset by the love life of their live-in niece, eighteen-year-old Marianne. They hope to marry her off soon and be rid of her, but Grandma has noticed something peculiar about Marianne's young man.

Comments: There's a viewpoint problem that hasn't been corrected in any of the collected versions. The story starts with a vaguely plural first-person narrator: "It was Mother's niece, Marianne, living with us while her parents were in Europe..." This viewpoint is quietly dropped, and by story’s end we are actually able to read Father’s internal monologue. The viewpoint would likely have undergone changes if the story had been incorporated into the planned Green Town novel. The relationship between Marianne and the vague narrator is that of cousins. Bradbury’s Cousin Marianne was also fictionalized as a member of the Elliot family in the original version of "The Traveler." The Elliots take a more unique approach to marrying the girl off.

See also: "The Terrible Conflagration up at the Place" isn't really about a fire either.

Summary: Ten-year-old Douglas Spaulding thinks the world of lonely librarian Miss Welkes. He spends his fireworks fund to buy her a gift and take her to a movie so that her Fourth of July won't be a dud.

Comments: Today was the Sunday literary supplement to the Philadelphia Inquirer. Miss Welkes is called Leonora in the first few pages and then Eleanora toward the end.

Nothing to do with "All Summer in a Day."
Similar in some ways to "A Story of Love."

Summary: Old Miss Bidwell hasn't left her home since her beau left town forty years ago. She doesn't answer the phone, and she's even had the front and back steps removed from the house. Mr. Widmer runs the store across the street, delivering the old woman's groceries, and waiting to see if the beau comes back.

Comments: A few changes are noticeable between Bradbury Stories and Summer Morning, Summer Night, including a slightly more sentimental ending in the former.

See also: An old man lives in similar isolation in "And the Sailor, Home From the Sea."

There are other lonely women in Green Town.

• "End of Summer"
• "All on a Summer’s Night"
• "The Swan"

Summary: Mr. and Mrs. Welles stop in a deli where a loaf of pumpernickel prompts memories of Mr. Welles’ youth and a special picnic he’d almost forgotten.

Comments: Pumpernickel is a dark rye bread best used for self-defense.

See also: "First Day" is another reminiscence of youth, friendship and broken pacts.

Summary: Ten-year-old Margaret Leary hears a buried woman screaming under the empty lot behind her house. But no one believes Margaret. And surely the woman is running out of air.

Comments: In Bradbury Country children are often smarter than adults, which could account for his popularity among young readers.

Ray Bradbury Theater #5 stars Drew Barrymore in her prime.

Radio: Suspense featured Margaret O'Brien in "The Screaming Woman" on Thanksgiving 1948. The same script was shortened a bit for the March 1955 broadcast starring Sherry Jackson. Both versions are set on Thanksgiving and use a doll as an important clue. The Bradbury 13 episode sticks to the song clue from the original story.

See also: "Zero Hour" is a more sinister example of what happens when parents don't listen to their children.

Summary: Thirteen-year-old Bob has fallen in love with the new school teacher Ann Taylor. And the twenty-four-year-old teacher is falling in love with him. But everything isn’t just peachy.

Comments: This story has had more than just a few title changes. Summer Morning, Summer Night claims to include the earliest published version. Bob’s last name is Markham in that version, and the story takes place in Green Bluff. In other versions Bob is described as a Spaulding cousin living in Green Town. Bradbury apparently tried to work this story into his autobiographical Green Town novel, but it does not appear in Dandelion Wine--even if the copyright page indicates that it does. Bob is too much of a loner to ever be substituted for Doug Spaulding. And Jon Eller’s introduction to Summer Morning, Summer Night points out that "Douglas is not quite old enough to have the kind of teen-age infatuation that motivates the character." This story is ultimately too mature and complex for Doug or Dandelion Wine.

Summary: A serial killer plays a game of hide-and-seek in a small town. He even leaves clues to make the game more interesting.

Comments: Readers of Dandelion Wine will remember the episode of Lavinia Nebbs and the Lonely One, a story otherwise known as "The Whole Town's Sleeping." "At Midnight" is that story's dark double, more of a flipside than a sequel. It follows the killer's viewpoint and gives readers a glimpse into his twisted mind.

The Bantam Spectra paperback of The Toynbee Convector has a typo on the very first word of this story. It says We where it should say He. Rather confusing at first.

Summary: Two small-town teenagers, Vinia and Jim, are caught in the rain while walking in the woods. Seeking shelter in a hollow tree, they share their first kiss against a backdrop of obvious symbolism.

Comments: "A Walk in Summer" was revised and collected as "Hopscotch" in Quicker Than the Eye. All those birds and bees buzzing around weren’t enough for Bradbury, so he wrapped the entire story in a hopscotch metaphor meant to represent the passage of adolescence. The "Hopscotch" version also adds the fact that this is Vinia’s seventeenth birthday. Summer Morning, Summer Night contains the original version without the hopscotch metaphor, as "A Walk in Summer."

In both versions Bradbury makes a point about Vinia’s parents being away. There’s a pregnant pause, if you’ll pardon the expression, during the goodnight scene on the porch. Vinia could easily invite Jim inside for a look at her bedroom, but she doesn’t and he doesn’t ask. This seems like the whole point of the story, making it more naïve than sentimental.

See also: Two more sentimental love stories are "One Timeless Spring" and "One Night in Your Life." A mature story of love is "These Things Happen." For more of a fantasy twist on the same theme see "The April Witch."

Summary: Old Miss Elizabeth Simmons is cleaning out her attic, throwing out her long-forgotten past, while her young neice Juliet clings to her recently acquired one.

Comments: This was once to be a part of Bradbury's Green Town novel. Summer Morning, Summer Night contains an alternate version where Grandma and Tom Spaulding are the main characters, and Elizabeth Simmons becomes Grandma's maiden name.

Summary: Elderly Mr. and Mrs. Alexander emerge from their home one spring day after two years of illness. They spend the morning rediscovering the town and themselves, but ultimately decide that they are more comfortable with their pill bottles and fuzzy slippers.

Comments: This one isn’t much as short stories go, and it goes on too long once the predictable ending has been guessed. But it was written to be woven into the Green Town novel, and it's hard to predict how much texture it might have added. A similar story of late-life arrival, "Miss Bidwell," was also attached to the projected novel. Neither story made the final cut when the novel was published as Dandelion Wine. These stories might have helped flesh out the late-arriving sequel, Farewell Summer, but they choose to turn in early instead.

Summary: George Gray doesn’t believe Mr. Pearce and the other old men when they talk about how beautiful Alice Langley had been before her early death fifty years ago. The young man is frustrated by their poetic descriptions and lack of photographic proof, but his attempt at digging up some contradictory evidence is equally elusive.

Comments: Flawed story with an unconvincing resolution. This is one of the leftover pieces written for the Green Town novel and never used. It was collected among other fragments in Summer Morning, Summer Night. Jon Eller, in the introduction to the limited edition, stresses that these stories be viewed as works-in-progress and that "The Beautiful Lady" is very preliminary.

Summary: Reclusive old maids Nancy and Julia Jillet loan a bottle of love potion to young Alice Ferguson. Alice returns the unused portion and the lonely sisters finish it off, transforming themselves into an overnight sensation.

Comments: This story is Arsenic and Old Lace without the humor. These are the women Elmira Brown should have been keeping an eye on.

Summary: Bus driver William Becket contemplates the night, the city, the ocean. His late route gives him plenty of quiet hours to know his own mind. Then he picks up a beautiful young woman and realizes that she is everything he’s ever wanted--and will never know.

Comments: This moody meditation of mid-life loneliness is clearly set in Los Angeles, but could have been changed to Green Town. The ocean references could have been changed to Lake Michigan. But in Dandelion Wine, Bradbury chose to write about the final days of the old-fashioned trolley line, making buses seem smelly and unromantic.

There is a completely different "Night Meeting" in The Martian Chronicles.

Summary: The Hettes are visiting the Spauldings, and the conversation becomes a who’s who of recent deaths, expected deaths, and their own telltale aches and pains.

Comments: Charlie Nesbitt is listed among the dead. He’s the man who buried "The Screaming Woman." Nancy Gillette is expected to die, but her name and description don’t quite match the character in "Love Potion." Mellin Town is also mentioned in this story.

Summary: Clarisse and Aggie Lou are such competitive children that Aggie’s illness makes Clarisse want to die first.

Comments: Eller indicates that this is really two fragments. It looks like a complete story. He also seems to have the two girls mixed up. He tells us this story "goes back to the earliest outline, appearing as one of the final titles of the 1945-46 Small Assassins concept." The archival materials in the Gauntlet edition of Dark Carnival show the story was also listed among titles for A Child’s Garden of Terror, Bradbury’s first proposed story collection.

Summary: Summer is here. Time to run barefoot in the grass and leave those clunky shoes behind.

Comments: A leftover fragment from Bradbury’s Green Town writings. Those clunky school shoes are also left behind in "The Sound of Summer Running."

Summary: A dog travels through Green Town, collecting all the textures and smells of summer in his fur.

Comments: This fragment, meant for the Green Town novel, is very reminiscent of "The Emissary."

Summary: Tom Spaulding is sending messages to mermaids by flushing handwritten notes down the toilet.

Comments: Too bad Bradbury didn't include this two paragraph fragment in Dandelion Wine.

Summary: In this short fragment children play games with words.

Comments: Have you ever heard Shirley Ellis sing "The Name Game"?

Summary: Doug has a projector in his head and runs films for himself each night before sleeping.

Comments: One paragraph fragment.

Summary: Grandpa gives Doug advice about living, loving, and discovering the world through the senses.

Comments: Fragment.

Summary: Grandpa gives Doug advice about perception and the real world.

Comments: This short fragment isn’t a full discussion, but just Grandpa speaking briefly. He advises Doug on how to avoid cynicism and skepticism, but he refuses to recommend optimism, saying instead, "I don’t even know if there’s a name for it, boy. You’ll just be someone that looks at the world straight off and sees it." This matches Bradbury’s claim that he’s no optimist, just a person functioning at optimal performance.

Summary: Grandpa Spaulding takes on the subject of love and the false depiction of it in movies.

Comments: This longer fragment mentions Bradbury’s Aunt Neva.

Summary: Tom Spaulding was sick in bed when the circus came to town. Now the boy visits the empty meadow and brings it all back with his imagination.

Comments: This leftover fragment from the planned Green Town novel includes Colonel Quartermain, the antagonist of Farewell Summer. Quartermain has prevented the circus from having a parade through town, where Tom might have been able to see some of it.

See also: "The Last Circus"

Summary: A boy named Charlie hides in a tomb when his family visits the cemetery. An old woman visits the tomb and seems to mistake Charlie for someone from her past.

Comments: A rather vague bit from the Green Town leftovers.

Summary: A short description of the changing seasons.

Comments: The last falling leaf of the Green Town fragments included in Summer Morning, Summer Night. Not to be confused with "End of Summer," a longer story included in the same book.