The October Country is Ray Bradbury's own netherworld of the soul, inhabited by the horrors and demons that lurk within all of us. Haunting, harrowing, and downright horrifying, this classic collection from the modern master of the fantastic includes:

THE SMALL ASSASSIN: a fine, healthy baby boy was the new mother's dream come true — or her nightmare...
THE EMISSARY: the faithful dog was the sick boy's only connection with the world outside — and beyond...
THE WONDERFUL DEATH OF DUDLEY STONE: a most remarkable case of murder — the deceased was delighted!
THE SCYTHE: Just when his luck had run out, Drew Erickson inherited a farm from a stranger! And with the bequest came deadly responsibilities...
THE JAR: A chilling story that combines love, death...and a matter of identity in a bottle of fear!

Plus nineteen more terrifying tales!

Renowned for his five-million copy bestseller, Fahrenheit 451, and hailed as the finest living writer of fantastic fiction, Ray Bradbury shows with each of these nineteen stories his brilliant knack for extracting the chilling essence of a world's insanities, disorders, and hang-ups. Once again he proves himself to be America's master of the short story.

"An author whose fanciful imagination, poetic prose, and mature understanding of human character have won him an international reputation." The New York Times

"The October Country" is Ray Bradbury's own netherworld of the soul, inhabited by the horrors and demons that lurk within all of us. Renowned for his five-million-copy bestseller, Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury proves here that he is America's master of the short story with these nineteen unforgettable tales.

Ray Bradbury, American novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright, screenwriter and poet, was born August 22, 1920 in Waukegan, Illinois. He graduated from a Los Angeles high school in 1938. Although his formal education ended there, he became a "student of life," selling newspapers on L.A. street corners from 1938 to 1942, spending his nights in the public library and his days at the typewriter. He became a full-time writer in 1943, and contributed numerous short stories to periodicals before publishing a collection of them, Dark Carnival, in 1947.

His reputation as a writer of courage and vision was established with the publication of The Martian Chronicles in 1950, which describes the first attempts of Earth people to conquer and colonize Mars, and the unintended consequences. Next came The Illustrated Man and then, in 1953, Fahrenheit 451, which many consider to be Bradbury?s masterpiece, a scathing indictment of censorship set in a future world where the written word is forbidden. In an attempt to salvage their history and culture, a group of rebels memorize entire works of literature and philosophy as their books are burned by the totalitarian state. Other works include The October Country, Dandelion Wine, A Medicine for Melancholy, Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Halloween Tree, I Sing the Body Electric!, Quicker Than the Eye, and Driving Blind. In all, Bradbury has published more than thirty books, close to 600 short stories, and numerous poems, essays, and plays. His short stories have appeared in more than 1,000 school curriculum "recommended reading" anthologies. Mr. Bradbury?s eagerly awaited new novel, From the Dust Returned, was published by William Morrow on Halloween 2001. Morrow also released One More For the Road, a new collection Bradbury stories, at Christmas 2001.

Ray Bradbury?s work has been included in four Best American Short Story collections. He has been awarded the O. Henry Memorial Award, the Benjamin Franklin Award, the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement, the Grand Master Award from the Science Fiction Writers of America, the PEN Center USA West Lifetime Achievement Award, among others. In November 2000, the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters was conferred upon Mr. Bradbury at the 2000 National Book Awards Ceremony in New York City.

Ray Bradbury has never confined his vision to the purely literary. He has been nominated for an Academy Award (for his animated film Icarus Montgolfier Wright), and has won an Emmy Award (for his teleplay of The Halloween Tree). He adapted sixty-five of his stories for television?s Ray Bradbury Theater. He was the creative consultant on the United States Pavilion at the 1964 New York World?s Fair. In 1982 he created the interior metaphors for the Spaceship Earth display at Epcot Center, Disney World, and later contributed to the conception of the Orbitron space ride at Euro-Disney, France.

Married since 1947, Mr. Bradbury and his wife Maggie live in Los Angeles with their four beloved cats. They have four daughters and eight grandchildren.

The dwarf — The next in line — The watchful poker chip of H. Matisse — Skeleton — The jar — The lake — The emissary — Touched with fire — 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 — Homecoming — The wonderful death of Dudley Stone.