 First edition's dust jacket. | |
| Author | Ray Bradbury |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Science fiction,post-apocalyptic fiction,horror fiction,dystopian fiction |
| Publisher | Doubleday |
Publication date | May 4, 1950; 75 years ago (May 4, 1950)[1] |
| Publication place | United States |
| Pages | 222 |
The Martian Chronicles is a science fictionfix-up novel, published in 1950, by American writerRay Bradbury that chronicles the exploration and settlement ofMars, the home ofindigenous Martians, by Americans leaving a troubled Earth that is eventually devastated bynuclear war.
The book projects American society immediately afterWorld War II into a technologically advanced future where the amplification of humanity's potentials to create and destroy have miraculous and devastating consequences. Events in the chronicle include the apocalyptic destruction of Martian and human civilizations though there are no stories with settings at the catastrophes. The outcomes of many stories raise concerns about the values and direction of America of the time by addressingmilitarism, science, technology, and war-time prosperity that could result in a globalnuclear war (e.g., "There Will Come Soft Rains" and "The Million-Year Picnic");depopulation that might be consideredgenocide (e.g., "The Third Expedition", "—And the Moon Be Still as Bright", and "The Musicians");racial oppression andexploitation (e.g., "Way in the Middle of the Air"); ahistoricism,philistinism, and hostility towards religion (e.g., "—And the Moon Be Still as Bright"); and censorship andconformity (e.g., "Usher II"). On Bradbury's award of aPulitzer Prize Special Citation in 2007, the book was recognized as one of his "masterworks that readers carry with them over a lifetime".[2]
The Martian Chronicles is afix-up novel consisting of published short stories along with new short bridge narratives in the form ofinterstitialvignettes,intercalary chapters, orexpository narratives. The published stories were revised for consistency and refinement.[2][3]
Bradbury did not writeThe Martian Chronicles as a singular work: Its creation as a novel was suggested to Bradbury by a publisher's editor years after most of the stories had first appeared in different publications (seepublication history and original publication notes underContents). In responding to the suggestion, the 29-year-old Bradbury remembers saying: "Oh, my God ... I readWinesburg, Ohio bySherwood Anderson when I was 24 and I said to myself, 'Oh God, wouldn't it be wonderful if someday I could write a book as good as this but put it on the planet Mars.'"[4] (See theInfluences section on literary influences affecting the work's structure.)
The Martian Chronicles is written as achronicle, each story presented as a chapter within an overall chronological ordering of the plot. Overall, it can be viewed as three extended episodes or parts, punctuated by twoapocalyptic events. Events in the book's original edition ranged from 1999 to 2026. As 1999 approached in real life, the dates were advanced by 31 years in the 1997 edition. The summary that follows includes the dates of both editions.
The creation ofThe Martian Chronicles by weaving together previous works was suggested to the author by New York City representatives ofDoubleday & Company in 1949 afterNorman Corwin recommended Bradbury travel to the city to be "'discovered'".[5] The work was subsequently published in hardbound form by Doubleday in the United States in 1950. Publication of the book was concurrent with the publication of Bradbury's short story, "There Will Come Soft Rains" that appeared inCollier's magazine. The short story appears as a chapter in the novel, though with some differences. The novel has been reprinted numerous times by many different publishers since 1950.
The Spanish language version ofThe Martian Chronicles,Crónicas Marcianas, was published in Argentina concurrently with the U.S. first edition, and included all the chapters contained in the U.S. edition. The edition included a foreword byJorge Luis Borges.
The book was published in the United Kingdom under the titleThe Silver Locusts (1951), with slightly different contents. In some editions the story "The Fire Balloons" was added, and the story "Usher II" was removed to make room for it.[6]
The book was published in 1963 as part of theTime Reading Program with an introduction byFred Hoyle.
In 1979,Bantam Books published a trade paperback edition with illustrations by Ian Miller.
As 1999 approached, the fictional future written into the first edition was in jeopardy, so the work was revised and a 1997 edition was published to advance all of the dates by 31 years (with the plot running from 2030 to 2057 instead of 1999 to 2026). The 1997 edition added "November 2033: The Fire Balloons" and "May 2034: The Wilderness", and omitted "Way in the Middle of the Air", a story considered less topical in 1997 than 1950.
The 1997 edition ofCrónicas Marcianas included the same revisions as the U.S. 1997 edition.
In 2009, theSubterranean Press andPS Publishing publishedThe Martian Chronicles: The Complete Editionthat included the 1997 edition of the work and additional stories under the title "The Other Martian Tales".[7] (SeeThe Other Martian Tales section of this article.)
Bradbury culled the table of contents forThe Martian Chronicles "Chronology" with each item formatted with the date of the story followed by a colon followed by the story title. The title of each chapter in the first edition was the corresponding line in "Chronology". In the 1997 edition, chapter titles omitted thecolons by printing the date and the story title on separate lines. The chapter titles that follow are formatted consistent with the "Chronology". The years are those appearing in the first edition followed by the year appearing in 1997 edition.
Publication information concerning short stories published prior to their appearance inThe Martian Chronicles is available inRay Bradbury short fiction bibliography.
First appeared in The Martian Chronicles. Not to be confused with the short story of the same name published in 1947.
"Rocket Summer" is a short vignette that describes the rocket launch of the first human expedition to Mars on a cold winter day inOhio.
First published as "I'll Not Ask for Wine" inMaclean's, January 1, 1950.
Ylla, an unhappily married Martian, who, like all Martians, hastelepathy, receives an impression of the human space traveler Nathaniel York. Ylla sings the 17th century song "Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes" (with lyrics from the poem "To Celia" byBen Jonson), in English she does not understand. She has a romantic dream involving him, in which he takes her back to Earth. Her jealous husband, Yll, kills York and her memories fade.
First published as "The Spring Night" inThe Arkham Sampler, winter 1949.
An idyllic Martian summer night is disrupted when Martian adults and children spontaneously start to sing the words from English poems and children's rhymes they do not understand, includingLord Byron's "She Walks in Beauty" and "Old Mother Hubbard". The music, poems and rhymes emanate from astronauts aboard the Second Expedition's spaceship heading towards Mars. The Martians are terrified and sense that a terrible event will occur the next morning.
First published inThrilling Wonder Stories, August 1948.
The Second Expedition encounters members of a Martian community not far from their landing site. The Earth explorers, mistaken for delusional Martians, find themselves locked up in aninsane asylum. A psychologist judges them to be incurably deluded and kills them, then kills himself in the belief that he too has gone insane.
First appeared inThe Martian Chronicles.
A man named Pritchard believes he is entitled to be in the crew of the Third Expedition because he is a taxpayer. He does not want to be left on Earth because "there's going to be an atomic war."
First published as "Mars is Heaven!" inPlanet Stories, fall 1948. The original short story was set in 1960. The story in The Martian Chronicles contains paragraph about medical treatments that slow the aging process, so that the characters can be traveling to Mars in 2000 but still remember the 1920s.
The Third Expedition find themselves lulled into a collective hallucination by the Martians and then killed by them. The ending leaves it ambiguous whether this was the plan of the Martians all along, or, given the telepathic origins of the hallucination and the way it was molded to their expectations and desires, Captain John Black accidentally willed it into being by coming to believe the hallucination was a trap for those perceived as invaders.
First published inThrilling Wonder Stories, June 1948.
The Fourth Expedition lands on the opposite side of Mars and finds all the Martians dead, having contracted and been killed bychicken pox inadvertently introduced by the previous expeditions. Crew member Jeff Spender becomes repelled by the others'ugly American attitudes as they explore a dead Martian city and begins to kill the others to ensure no further human incursions ruin Mars.
First appeared inThe Martian Chronicles.
"The Settlers" is a vignette that describes the "Lonely Ones", the first settlers of Mars, single men from the United States who are few in number.
First appeared inThe Martian Chronicles.
Benjamin Driscoll is anemigrant who faces the prospect of having to return to Earth because he has difficulty breathing in the thin Martian atmosphere. Driscoll believes Mars can be made more hospitable by planting trees to enrich the air withoxygen, and is stunned to see the seeds he has planted grow into a fully mature forest overnight. Referencing this story, Driscoll Forest is a place named in "The Naming of Names".
First appeared inThe Martian Chronicles.
A vignette describing the arrival of ninety thousand Americanemigrants to Mars.
First appeared inThe Martian Chronicles.
"Night Meeting" is the story of Tomás Gomez, a youngLatino construction worker on Mars, who drives his truck across an empty expanse between towns to attend a party, and his encounters along the way with an elderly gas station owner and a Martian who appears to him as aphantom. They each regard each other as a dream.
The fearless Tomás Gomez reflects a common Mexican attitude toward death, which Bradbury understood. Prior to the publication ofThe Martian Chronicles in 1950, two of his short stories relating to theDay of the Dead were published in 1947 — "El Día de Muerte" set on the Day of the Dead inMexico City and "The Next in Line" that was published in his bookDark Carnival about a visit tocatacombs in a Mexican village which terrifies the American protagonist. Both stories were likely inspired by his learning about Mexican death rites during his own frightful experience on a 1945 trip to Mexico that included a visit inGuanajuato where he viewedmummies.[8]
This vignette characterizes two successive groups of settlers as American emigrants who arrive in "waves" that "spread upon" the Martian "shore" – the first are the frontiersmen described in "The Settlers", and the second are men from the "cabbagetenements and subways" of urban America.
The story first appeared as "…In This Sign" inImagination, April 1951 after publication of the first (1950) edition ofThe Martian Chronicles and so, was included in the U.S. edition ofThe Illustrated Man and inThe Silver Locusts. The story was included in the 1997 edition ofThe Martian Chronicles, though it appeared in earlier special editions – the 1974 edition from The Heritage Press, the September 1979 illustrated trade edition from Bantam Books, the "40th Anniversary Edition" from Doubleday Dell Publishing Group and in the 2001Book-of-the-Month Club edition.
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"The Fire Balloons" is a story about anEpiscopal missionary expedition to cleanse Mars ofsin, consisting of priests from large American cities led by the Most Reverend Father Joseph Daniel Peregrine and his assistant Father Stone. Peregrine has a passionate interest in discovering the kinds of sins that may be committed by aliens reflected in his book,The Problem of Sin on Other Worlds. Peregrine and Stone argue constantly about whether the mission should focus on cleansing humans or Martians. With the question unanswered, the priests travel to Mars aboard the spaceshipCrucifix. The launch of the rocket triggers Peregrine's memories as a young boy ofthe Fourth of July with his grandfather.
After landing on Mars, Peregrine and Stone meet with the mayor of First City, who advises them to focus their mission on humans. The mayor tells the priests that the Martians look like blue "luminous globes of light" and they saved the life of an injured prospector working in a remote location by transporting him to a highway. The mayor's description of the Martians triggers Peregine's endearing memories of himself launching fire balloons with his grandfather on Independence Day.
Peregrine decides to search for and meet Martians, and he and Stone venture into the hills where the prospector encountered them. The two priests are met by a thousand fire balloons. Stone is terrified and wants to return to First City while Peregrine is overwhelmed by their beauty, imagines his grandfather is there with him to admire them, and wants to converse with them, though the fire balloons disappear. The two priests immediately encounter a rock slide, which Stone believes they escaped by chance and Peregrine believes they were saved by Martians. The two argue their disagreement, and during the night while Stone is sleeping, Peregrine tests his faith in his hunch by throwing himself off a high cliff. As he falls, Peregrine is surrounded by blue light and is set safely on the ground. Peregrine tells Stone of the experience but Stone believes Peregrine was dreaming, so Peregrine takes a gun which he fires at himself and the bullets drop at his feet, convincing his assistant.
Peregrine uses his authority to have the mission build a church in the hills for the Martians. The church is for outdoor services and is constructed after six days of work. A blue glass sphere is brought as a representation of Jesus for the Martians. On the seventh day, a Sunday, Peregrine holds a service in which he plays an organ and uses his thoughts to summon the Martians. The fire balloons, who call themselves the Old Ones, appear as glorious apparitions to the priests and communicate the story of their creation, their immortality, their normally solitary existences, and their pure virtuousness. They thank the priests for building the church and tell them they are unneeded and ask them to relocate to the towns to cleanse the people there. The fire balloons depart, which fills Peregrine with such overwhelming sadness that he wants to be lifted up like his grandfather did when he was a small child. The priests are convinced and withdraw to First Town along with the blue glass sphere that has started to glow from within. Peregrine and Stone believe the sphere is Jesus.
Bradbury said he consulted a Catholic priest in Beverly Hills while he developed the plot for "Fire Balloons". In an interview, Bradbury recalled part of a day-long conversation: "'Listen, Father, how would you act if you landed on Mars and found intelligent creatures in the form of balls of fire? Would you think you ought to save them or would you think they were saved already?' 'Wow! That's a hell of a fine question!' the father exclaimed. And he told me what he would do. In short, what I make Father Peregrine do."[9]
Interpretation of "The Fire Balloons" has been called "ambiguous" because its meaning can be dramatically different due to the context set by the stories that accompany it.[10] Its first appearance in the U.S. in 1951 was as a stand-alone story as "... In This Sign" and inThe Illustrated Man that was concurrent with its first appearance inThe Silver Locusts in the U.K. which included all ofThe Martian Chronicles stories with Martian characters. WithinThe Silver Locusts and the 1997 edition ofThe Martian Chronicles the strategy used by Martians in "The Fire Balloons" is implicit – they use their telepathic powers to peacefully keep settlers away from their mountains. As in "Ylla" the Martians understand Father Peregrine's fond memories of his grandfather and the Fourth of July celebrations they shared together involving fire balloons before and after theCrucifix lands on Mars. As in "The Earth Men", an elaborate, imaginary world is constructed, though in "The Fire Balloons" it is for the priests to convince them to cleanse humans of sin in First City. The appearance of Martians as fire balloons ends with the chapter.
First appeared inThe Martian Chronicles. Not to be confused with the short horror story or "Time Intervening," which is also under that title.
A vignette describing how the Tenth City is built by colonists.
First appeared inThe Martian Chronicles.
Young boys defy their parents and habitually play in and among the otherwise unpopulated ruins of indigenous Martian towns where they perished in their homes. The Firemen methodically incinerate the remnants of Martian civilization and the bones of the Martians. The boys play amongst the relics and make Martian bones into musical instruments.
First appeared inThe Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, November 1952. The story appears in the 1974 edition ofThe Martian Chronicles by The Heritage Press, the 1979 Bantam Books illustrated trade edition, and the 1997 edition ofThe Martian Chronicles.
InIndependence, Missouri, a woman, Janice Smith, expects a telephone call at midnight from her fiancé Will on Mars. He has already purchased a home on Mars identical to her home on Earth. His response after the long delay due to the distance to Mars is incomplete due to natural interference so, she only hears him say "love". Smith contemplates being a pioneer as the women before her, and then falls asleep for the last time on Earth.
First appeared in the first edition ofThe Martian Chronicles and not included in the 1997 edition. The work later appeared in the July 1950 issue ofOther Worlds Science Stories after five major magazines rejected the manuscript drafted in 1948.[11]
Bradbury explained that the drafting of "Way in the Middle of the Air" was a common way he used writing to address his emotional state affecting him at a moment. He recalled in a 1962 interview that he was so upset about the circumstances of African-Americans in the United States that "I put them in rocket ships and send them off to Mars, in a short story, to rid myself of that tension".[12]
Publication of "Way in the Middle of the Air" in 1950 was groundbreaking for a science fiction story even though the work is considered limited by providing only the viewpoint of white Americans. According to Isiah Lavender III, "Bradbury is one of the very few authors in [science fiction] who dared to consider the effects and consequences of race in America at a time when racism was sanctioned by the culture."[13] Even with the story's limitations, Robert Crossley suggested that it might be considered "the single most incisive episode of black and white relations in science fiction by a white author."[14]
"Way in the Middle of the Air" concerns the coming together ofblack people in theAmerican South to build a rocket of their own and emigrate to Mars in search of a better life. Samuel Teece, aracist white hardware store owner in a small town, constantly denigrates the departing families and tries to stop one young man, Belter, from leaving because he owes Teece $50. The other travelers quickly take up a collection to settle the debt. Teece's employee Silly tries to leave as well, but Teece reminds Silly of a contract he allegedly signed that requires him to give notice before quitting. Only after Teece's grandfather volunteers to take Silly's place does Teece let the boy go. As Silly hurries after the others, he asks Teece what he will do at night once all the black people have left Earth. Teece realizes that Silly was mocking him about thelynchings in which he has participated; infuriated, he races after Silly but cannot get far due to all the possessions the travelers have left scattered on the road. Teece refuses to watch the rocket liftoff, but takes some comfort in the fact that Silly always addressed him as "Mister."
First appeared inThe Martian Chronicles. (Not to be confused with the short story "The Naming of Names", first published inThrilling Wonder Stories, August 1949, later published as "Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed".)
"The Naming of Names" is a short vignette about the names of places on Mars being given American names that memorialize the crews of the four exploratory expeditions, or "mechanical" or "metal" names, which replace the Martian names that were for geographic features and things in nature.
The vignette also describes tourists who visit Mars and shop, and describes the next wave of emigrants as "sophisticates" and people who "instruct" and "rule" and "push" other people about.
First published asCarnival of Madness inThrilling Wonder Stories, April 1950. In 2010, Los Angeles artist Allois, in collaboration with Bradbury, released illustrated copies of "Usher" and "Usher II".[15] The story also appeared in the 2008 Harper Collins/ Voyager edition ofThe Illustrated Man.
"Usher II" is ahorror story andhomage toEdgar Allan Poe about the wealthy William Stendahl and the house he built to murder the enemies that he has spent a year cultivating to think of him as a friend. Stendahl has essentially unlimited cash to pay for components to be brought by rocket from Earth. There are many robots to commit murder and play other roles such asRapunzel letting down her long hair to coax enemies into the structure.
Mr. Bigelow is the architect who completed building a house to match Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" without understanding the reference because all books with undesirable concepts were burned in 1975, 35 years earlier, including Stendahl's own 50,000-book library (Cf.Fahrenheit 451). The repression started in a small way in 1950 (Cf.McCarthyism).
The house is complete with black diedsedge, a hideoustarn, a crack through the structure, and mechanisms to ensure that the scene is in constant darkness. Stendahl's assistant Pikes, as evil as himself and also hideous, had been an actor in horror films that had been burned, and he was forbidden to perform even for himself in front of a mirror. Bradbury describes his performances as superior to, more appalling than, horror film actors of 1950,Lon Chaney,Boris Carloff,Bela Lugosi.
A mechanical ape murders Mr Garrett, an investigator of Moral Climates, who had told Stendahl that he would have his place dismantled and burned later that day. It is later revealed, however, that Mr Garrett was himself a robot and the human Garrett turns up the following morning.
Stendahl and Pikes send invitations out to their enemies for a party, and about 30 arrive. They are subjected to an automated horror fantasy world based on Poe's "The Premature Burial", "The Pit and the Pendulum", and "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", and then killed. Many are women involved in various efforts consistent with the 1975 book burning. Garrett is treated as the character Fortunato from Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado". After Stendahl and Pikes have disposed of all their guests, they leave in a helicopter and, from above, watch the house break apart like the one in Poe's story.
First appeared inThe Martian Chronicles.
"The Old Ones" is a short vignette that describes the last wave of emigrants to Mars –elderly Americans. The title does not refer to the Martians in "The Fire Balloons".
First published inSuper Science Stories, November 1949.
"The Martian" is the story about an elderly married couple, LaFarge and Anna, who encounter a Martian who wants to live with them as their fourteen-year-old son, Tom, even though Tom died of pneumonia many years before.
First appeared inThe Martian Chronicles.
"The Luggage Store" is a shortdialogue between Father Peregrine and the elderly owner of aluggage store. The proprietor tells Peregrine that he heard on the radio that there will be a war on Earth, looks at Earth in the night sky, and tells the priest he finds the news incredible. Peregrine changes the proprietor's mind by telling him that news of war is unbelievable because Earth is so far away. The shop owner tells the priest of the hundred thousand new emigrants expected in the coming months and Peregrine comments that the travelers will be needed on Earth and that they will probably be turning back. The proprietor tells the priest that he'd better prepare his luggage for a quick sale after which the priest asks if the owner thinks all the emigrants on Mars will return to Earth. The owner believes so because the emigrants have not been on Mars for long, except for himself because he is so old. Peregrine tells the shopkeeper that he is wrong about staying on Mars. The owner is convinced again by the priest, and Peregrine buys a new valise to replace his old one.
First published inThrilling Wonder Stories, December 1948.
"The Off Season" is the story of former Fourth Expedition crewman Sam Parkhill, who is a character in "—And The Moon Be Still As Bright", and his wife Elma, and their encounters with Martians as they prepare to open the firsthot dog stand on Mars, which is decorated with glass Sam broke off old Martian buildings. The Parkhills hope to become wealthy because one hundred thousand new emigrants are expected to arrive to establish Earth Settlement 101 nearby, though Elma points out that the new inhabitants will be Mexican and Chinese nationals. The couple is unaware that Earth is on the brink of global war because their radio is broken.
During the evening, the Parkhills are approached by a Martian they spoke to earlier that day. The Martian learns the Parkhills do not know about the situation on Earth and as the Martian says he wants to show Sam a bronze tube that appears in the Martian's hand. Sam shoots the Martian dead with a gun believing the tube is a weapon. However, Elma discovers the tube contains a document written with Martian hieroglyphics neither of them understand. As Sam tells Elma that the Earth Settlement will protect him from Martians, Elma sees twelve Martian sand ships approaching and Sam believes the Martians want to kill him. Sam takes Elma onto a Martian sand ship he purchased at an auction and learned to operate, and takes off to a town for protection. As Sam's sand ship sails, a young woman appears on the ship's tiller bench. The woman, a vision, tells Sam to return to the hot dog stand. Sam refuses and tells the women to get off his ship. The vision argues that the ship is not his and claims it as part of the Martian world. Sam shoots the vision and it vanishes after breaking into crystals and vaporizing. Elma is disappointed in Sam and asks him to stop the ship, but Sam refuses. In frustration and to display his might, Sam destroys the crystal ruins of a Martian city by shooting them as the sand ship passes by, though Elma is unimpressed and then falls unconscious.
As Sam readies to shoot up another Martian city, three sand ships catch up with him. Sam shoots at them and one ship disintegrates and vaporizes along with its crew. As the two other ships approach Sam's, he gives up by stopping his ship. A Martian calls him, and Sam explains himself and surrenders by throwing down his gun. The Martian tells him to retrieve his gun and return to the hot dog stand where they want to explain something without harming him. Elma wakes up on the journey back.
Back at the hot dog stand, the Martian Leader tells the Parkhills to ready it for operation and to have a celebration. The Leader produces the scrolls which he explains are grants to Sam that sum to half of the entire planet. Sam asks the Leader for an explanation for the gift but the Martians announce their departure and tell him to "prepare" and repeat that the land is his. Sam believes the Martians were telling him the rockets with the new emigrants are arriving, so Sam and Elma start preparing hot dogs. As they prepare food, Sam thinks of the hungry emigrants to feed and botches recitation ofEmma Lazarus' poem "The New Colossus" which is on a plaque at theStatue of Liberty in Sam's hometown, New York City. Elma looks at Earth in the night sky and sees an explosion on the planet that gains Sam's attention. Elma tells Sam she believes no customers will be coming to the hot dog stand for a million years.
In "—And the Moon Be Still as Bright", the bodies of dead Martians are corpses. Sam Parkhill's shooting of the Martians dead at his hot dog stand and on his sand ship are illusions projected by one or more Martians somewhere else.
First appeared inThe Martian Chronicles. Not to be confused with the 1945 short story of the same name.
"The Watchers" is a short vignette about the concerns of the Martian colonists, who are all Americans, about reports of war on Earth. At nine o'clock in the night sky, they view an explosion that changes the color of Earth, though, three hours later the color returns to normal. At two o'clock in the morning, colonists receive a message that war had begun, that a stockpile ofnuclear weapons "prematurely" detonated destroying the Australian continent, and that Los Angeles and London had been bombed. The message said "come home" repeatedly without explanation. The proprietor of a luggage store, who is a character in "The Luggage Store", sells out of stock early in the morning, as colonists prepare to return to Earth.
First published inCharm, March 1949.
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"The Silent Towns" is a story about thirty year old Walter Gripp, a miner who lived in a remote mountain shack and walked to the town of Marlin Village every two weeks to find a wife. On his December visit Gripp finds the town abandoned and happily helps himself to money, food, clothing, movies, and other luxuries, but soon realizes he is lonely. As he walks to return to his shack, Gripp hears a phone ringing in an abandoned house but he cannot reach it soon enough to communicate with the caller. He hears a telephone ringing in another house and misses the call and realizes he expects the caller to be a woman. In the abandoned home, he obtains a colonytelephone directory and starts calling the listed numbers in alphabetical order but stops after contacting a woman's automated message service. Gripps tries his luck with telephone exchanges and government and public institutions, and then places where he thinks a woman would take herself. Gripp calls the biggest beauty parlor in New Texas City and reaches Genevieve Selsor but is cut off. He finds a car and drives a thousand miles to the Deluxe Beauty Salon, fantasizing about Selsor along the way. Gripp cannot find Selsor there and believes she drove to Marlin Village to find him, so he returns and finds Selsor at a beauty parlor holding a box of cream chocolates.
Gripps finds the twenty-seven-year old physically unattractive and suffers while they watch aClark Gable movie together after which she pours perfume into her hair. They return to the beauty parlor and Selsor declares herself as the "last lady on Mars" and Gripp as the last man and presents him with a box containing a wedding dress. Gripp flees, driving across Mars to another tiny town to spend his life happily alone and ignoring any phone he hears ringing.
First published inMaclean's, September 15, 1948.
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"The Long Years" is the story of the last days of the life of Hathaway, the physician/geologist crewman from the Fourth Expedition's story "—And the Moon Still Be As Bright". At night during a windstorm, Hathaway visits four graves on a hill away from his family's hut and asks the dead for forgiveness for what he's done because he was lonely. As he returns to the hut, he spots a rocket approaching. He tells the family of the "good news" of a rocket arrival in the morning. He goes to the nearby ruins of New New York City and sets it ablaze as a location for the rocket to land. Hathaway returns to the hut to serve wine to his family in celebration. He reminisces about missing all the rockets evacuating colonists from Mars when the Great War started because he and his whole family were doing archaeological work in the mountains. As his wife and three children drink their wine it all just runs down their chins.
In the morning, the family prepares to greet whoever is in the rocket ship, including a great breakfast. As the rocket lands, Hathaway suffers anangina attack while running toward it. He recovers and continues on. Wilder, who was captain of the Fourth Expedition, emerges, sees Hathaway and greets him. Wilder explains that he has been on a twenty-year mission to the outer solar system; reports that he surveyed Mars before landing and found only one other person, Walter Gripp, who decided to stay on Mars, Wilder ponders with Hathaway the fate of Earth; and agrees to take Hathaway and his family on his return to Earth. Hathaway compliments Wilder on his promotion to lead the twenty-year mission so that Wilder would not slow the development of Mars. Wilder orders his crew out of the spaceship to join Hathaway's family.
On their way to the family hut, Hathaway updates Wilder on the Fourth Expedition's crewmen. Hathway tells Wilder that he visits Jeff Spender's tomb annually to pay his respects, and about Sam Parkhill's hot dog stand which was abandoned a week after opening to return to Earth. Wilder observes Hathaway in physical distress and has his physician crewman check Hathaway. Hathaway tells Wilder that he has stayed alive just to await rescue and now that Wilder has arrived he can die. The doctor gives him a pill and then says what he just spoke was "nonsense". Hathway recovers and continues on to the family hut.
At the hut, Hathaway introduces his family to the crew. Wilder is struck by how young Hathaway's wife appears, given that he met her decades earlier, and he compliments her on her youthfulness. Wilder asks John, Hathaway's son, his age, and John answers twenty-three. Crewman Williamson tells Wilder that John is supposed to be forty-two. Wilder sends Williamson off to investigate on the pretense of checking up on their rocket. Williamson returns to report that he found the graves of Hathaway's wife and children, and that the gravestones said that they died of an unknown disease during July 2007/2038.
As breakfast ends, Hathaway stands and toasts the crew and his family, and as soon he is done he collapses and knows that he will soon be dead. Wilder wants to call the family in to see Hathaway, but Hathaway stops him. Hathaway says they would not understand and he would not want them to understand, and then dies. Wilder converses with Hathaway's wife and concludes that she and the children are allandroids, created by Hathaway to keep him company after his wife and children died. The crew buries Hathaway in his family's graveyard.
As Wilder prepares to depart, Williamson asks Wilder about what should be done about the android family and specially asks whether they should be deactivated. Wilder rejects taking them to Earth and says deactivation never crossed his mind. Wilder hands Williamson a gun and tells the crewman that if he can do anything it is better than anything he can do. Williamson goes into the hut and returns to Wilder reporting that he pointed the gun at an android daughter, who responded by smiling, and that he felt shooting them would be "murder". Wilder speculates the androids could operate for up to two more centuries. The rocket departs, and the android family continues on with its endless routines, that includes, for no reason at all, the android wife nightly looking up at Earth in the sky and tending a fire.
First published inCollier's, May 6, 1950, and revised for inclusion inThe Martian Chronicles.
An unoccupied, highly automated house of the McClellan family that stands and operates intact in a California city that is otherwise obliterated by a nuclear bomb, and its destruction by a fire caused by a windstorm. The story marks the end of the United States as a nation. The story also commemorates theUnited States'atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 5, 1945 (US time) duringWorld War II. The title of the story was taken fromSara Teasdale's anti-war poem "There Will Come Soft Rains" originally published in 1918 duringWorld War I and the1918 Flu Pandemic.
First published inPlanet Stories, summer 1946.
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William Thomas, his wife Alice, and his three sons have traveled to Mars to escape war under the parents' pretense that the family is taking a fishing trip. Alice is noticeably pregnant with a girl. The family enjoys a warm Martian summer day along water-filled canals. William is troubled by the war on Earth and does his best to keep the children entertained though he mutters his concerns as stray thoughts his children do not completely comprehend. William draws the boys' attention on fish, the ancient Martian cities they pass by, and on finding Martians – the latter, William assures the boys that they will find. While boating in a canal William and his wife listen to a broadcast on their radio and are jolted by what they hear. William remotely detonates the family's rocket, throttles the boat faster to drown out the noise, collides with a wharf and stops. William tells the boys he did it to keep their location secret. William listens in on the atomic radio again and hears nothing for a couple of minutes. He tells the family, "It's over at last". William boats down the canal where they pass six Martian cities and asks the family to choose the best one. They choose the last one and William declares that it will be their new home. He tells the family that they will be joined by Bert Edward's family that includes four girls.
The family settles around a campfire. William burns a variety of documents in it, including government bonds. While doing that, he tells his sons that Earth has been destroyed, and that the way of life on Earth "proved itself wrong" through its own self-destruction. He warns his sons that he will tell them the last point everyday until they really understand it. William takes the family to the canal and tells the children that they will be taught what they need to learn and that they are going to see Martians. William stops at the canal and points to the family's reflection in the water.
Bradbury's fascination with Mars started when he was a child, including depictions of Mars in the works ofEdgar Rice Burroughs'The Gods of Mars[16] andJohn Carter, Warrior of Mars.[17] Burroughs' influence on the author was immense, as Bradbury believed "Burroughs is probably the most influential writer in the entire history of the world."[18] Bradbury said that as a child, he memorized all of John Carter andTarzan and repeated the stories to anyone who would listen.[19]Harold Foster's 1931 series ofTarzanSunday comics had such an impact on his life that "The Martian Chronicles would never have happened" otherwise.[20]
Ray Bradbury referred toThe Martian Chronicles as "a book of stories pretending to be a novel".[5] He credited a diverse set of literary influences that had an effect on the structure and literary style ofThe Martian Chronicles, among themSherwood Anderson,William Shakespeare,Saint-John Perse, andJohn Steinbeck, as well asEdgar Rice Burroughs, particularly theBarsoom stories andJohn Carter of Mars books.
Bradbury was particularly inspired by plot and character development in Sherwood Anderson'sWinesburg, Ohio that helped him write "vivid and real" stories that improved his earlier writings that were "lifeless robots, mechanical and motionless".[5] The author said the stories took their form as combinations of component "Martian pensées" which were "Shakespearian 'asides,' wandering thoughts, long night visions, predawn half-dreams" honed in a manner inspired by the perfection of Saint-John Perse.[5]
The combination of separate stories to createThe Martian Chronicles as "a half-cousin to a novel" was a suggestion ofDoubleday editor Walter Bradbury (no relation to the author), who paid Ray Bradbury $750 for the outline of the book. The author only then realized such a book would be comparable to his idea ofWinesburg, Ohio.[21] For his approach to integrating previous work into a novel, Bradbury creditedSherwood Anderson'sWinesburg, Ohio[5] andJohn Steinbeck'sThe Grapes of Wrath[22] as influences on the structure of the work.Winesburg, Ohio is a short story cycle, andThe Grapes of Wrath separates narrative chapters withnarrative expositions that serve asprologues to subsequent narrative chapters. The idea of using short vignettes, intercalary chapters, and expository narratives to connect the full-lengthChronicle stories, their role in the overall work, and the literary style used to write them, Bradbury said were "subconsciously borrowed" from those inThe Grapes of Wrath, which he first read at age nineteen, the year the novel was published.[22]
Upon publication,The Paris Review noted that "The Martian Chronicles ... was embraced by the science-fiction community as well as critics, a rare achievement for the genre.Christopher Isherwood hailed Bradbury as 'truly original' and a 'very great and unusual talent'."[18] Isherwood argued that Bradbury's works were "tales of the grotesque and arabesque", and compared them to the works ofEdgar Allan Poe, writing that Bradbury "already deserves to be measured against the greatest master of his particular genre."[23] Writer and criticAnthony Boucher and criticJ. Francis McComas praisedChronicles as "a poet's interpretation of future history beyond the limits of any fictional form".[24] The writerL. Sprague de Camp, however, declared that Bradbury would improve "when he escapes from the influence ofHemingway andSaroyan", placing him in "the tradition of anti-science-fiction writers [who] see no good in the machine age". Still, de Camp acknowledged that Bradbury's "stories have considerable emotional impact, and many will love them".[25]
A decade of after its publication,Damon Knight in his "Books" column forF&SF listedThe Martian Chronicles on his top-ten science fiction books of the 1950s.[26]
By September 1979 more than three million copies ofThe Martian Chronicles had been sold.[27]
On November 28, 1964, the NASA spacecraftMariner 4 flew by Mars and took the first close-up pictures of the Martian surface that were far different than those described by Ray Bradbury. In spite of direct visual and scientific information since then that indicates that Mars is nothing like Bradbury's descriptions inThe Martian Chronicles, the novel remains a popular work of "classic short stories", "science fiction", and "classic fiction anthologies and collections" as indicated by the Amazon book store best seller lists.[28] In an introduction to a 2015 edition of the work, Canadian astronaut and formerInternational Space Station commanderChris Hadfield speculated on the continuing popularity of the work, attributing it to beautiful descriptions of the Martian landscape, its ability to "challenge and inspire" the reader to reflect on humanity's history of related follies and failures, and the popular idea that someday some people will come to accept Mars as being their permanent home.[29] Bradbury attributed the attraction of readers to his book because the story is a myth or fable rather than science fiction. He said "... even the most deeply rooted physicists at Cal-Tech accept breathing the fraudulent oxygen atmosphere I have loosed on Mars. Science and machines can kill each other off or be replaced. Myth, seen in mirrors, incapable of being touched, stays on. If it is not immortal, it almost seems such."[5]
The August 6, 2012, Martian landing site ofCuriosity, NASA's Mars Rover, was namedBradbury Landing in honor of Ray Bradbury on August 22, 2012, on what would have been the author's 92nd birthday. On naming it, Michael Meyer, NASA program scientist forCuriosity, said: "This was not a difficult choice for the science team. Many of us and millions of other readers were inspired in our lives by stories Ray Bradbury wrote to dream of the possibility of life on Mars."[30]
A stage production of "Way in the Middle of the Air" was produced at the Desilu Studios Gower Studios, Hollywood, California in 1962.[31]
The debut of a theater adaptation ofThe Martian Chronicles was at the Cricket Theater (The Ritz) in Northeast Minneapolis in 1976.[32]
In 1960,Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer bought the film rights but no film was made.[33]
In 1988, the SovietArmenian studioArmenfilm produced the feature filmThe 13th Apostle, starringJuozas Budraitis,Donatas Banionis,Armen Dzhigarkhanyan, based onThe Martian Chronicles. The film was directed by Armenian actor and screenwriter, Suren Babayan.[34]
The Uzbek filmmaker Nozim To'laho'jayev made two films based on sections from the book: 1984's animated shortThere Will Come Soft Rains (Russian: Будет ласковый дождь)[35] and 1987's full-length live action filmVeld (Russian: Вельд), with one of the subplots based onThe Martian.[36]
In 2011Paramount Pictures acquired the film rights with the intention of producing a film franchise, withJohn Davis producing throughDavis Entertainment.[37]
The Martian Chronicles was adapted as a full-length contemporary opera by composerDaniel Levy and librettist Elizabeth Margid.[38] This is the only musical adaptation authorized by Bradbury himself, who turned downLerner and Loewe in the 1960s when they asked his permission to make a musical based on the novel.[39] The work received its initial readings from the Harriet Lake Festival of New Plays at theOrlando Shakespeare Theater in 2006,[40] and was presented in workshop form in the inaugural season of theFordham University Lincoln Center Alumni Company in 2008.[41] The "Night Meeting" episode was presented at Cornelia Street Cafe's "Entertaining Science" series on June 9, 2013.[42] The entire work was presented as a staged reading with a cast of Broadway actors atArs Nova NYC on February 11, 2015.[43] Three scenes were presented as a workshop production with immersive staging, directed by Carlos Armesto of Theatre C and conducted by Benjamin Smoulder atMiami University, Oxford OH on September 17–19, 2015.[44]
In 2001 a Danish melodic metal bandRoyal Hunt released a concept album called "The Mission," based on "The Martian Chronicles."
Hungarianprogressive rock bandSolaris named their first studio albumMarsbéli Krónikák in honour ofThe Martian Chronicles.
In 2025darkwave /goth-rock band Voidflowers released a single "Endless Cosmic Night", based on "August 2002: Night Meeting" from "The Martian Chronicles".[45]
The Martian Chronicles was adapted for radio in the science fiction radio seriesDimension X. This truncated version contained elements of the stories "Rocket Summer", "Ylla", "–and the Moon Be Still as Bright", "The Settlers", "The Locusts", "The Shore", "The Off Season", "There Will Come Soft Rains", and "The Million-Year Picnic".
"—and the Moon Be Still as Bright" and "There Will Come Soft Rains" were also adapted for separate episodes in the same series. The short stories "Mars Is Heaven" and "Dwellers in Silence" also appeared as episodes ofDimension X. The latter is in a very different form from the one found inThe Martian Chronicles.
A very abridged spoken word reading of "There Will Come Soft Rains" and "Usher II" was made in 1975 withLeonard Nimoy as narrator.
ABBC Radio 4 adaption, produced by Andrew Mark Sewell as an hour-long programme and starringDerek Jacobi as Captain Wilder, was broadcast on June 21, 2014, as part of theDangerous Visions series.[46][47]
In 1979NBC partnered with theBBC to commissionThe Martian Chronicles, a three-episode miniseries adaptation running just over four hours. It was written byRichard Matheson and was directed byMichael Anderson.Rock Hudson starred as Wilder,Darren McGavin as Parkhill,Bernadette Peters as Genevieve Selsor,Bernie Casey as Jeff Spender,Roddy McDowall as Father Stone, andBarry Morse as Hathaway, as well asFritz Weaver. Bradbury found the miniseries "just boring".[48]
The cable television seriesThe Ray Bradbury Theater adapted some individual short stories fromThe Martian Chronicles including "Mars is Heaven", "The Earthmen", "And the Moon Be Still as Bright", "Usher II", "The Martian", "Silent Towns", and "The Long Years".[49] Video releases of the series included a VHS tape entitledRay Bradbury's Chronicles: The Martian Episodes with some editions with three episodes and others with five.[50][51][52]
Several of the short stories inThe Martian Chronicles were adapted intographic novel-style stories in theEC Comics magazines, including "There Will Come Soft Rains" inWeird Fantasy #17, "The Long Years" inWeird Science #17, "Mars Is Heaven" inWeird Science #18, "The Million-Year Picnic" inWeird Fantasy #21 and "The Silent Towns" inWeird Fantasy #22.
In 2011,Hill & Wang publishedRay Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles: The Authorized Adaptation as a graphic novel, with art byDennis Calero.[53]
The Martian Chronicles adventure game was published in 1996.
The Martian Chronicles: The Complete Edition published in 2009 by Subterranean Press and PS Publishing contains the 1997 edition ofThe Martian Chronicles with an additional collection of stories under the titleThe Other Martian Tales, which includes the following:
The Other Martian Stories also includes the 1964 and 1997The Martian Chronicles screenplays, and essays byJohn Scalzi,Marc Scott Zicree, andRichard Matheson.
The company's first show, a musical adaptation of the Ray Bradbury's 1950s science fiction novel The Martian Chronicles, …
