Masks

BRADBURY, RAY. Masks. Edited by Donn Albright. Illustrated. 8vo. Original cloth, in dust wrapper, enclosed in publisher's box. Gauntlet Press 2008. First Edition. Limited to 52 copies, this being letter OO, signed by Bradbury on a special limitation page. The Masks was to be Bradbury's second novel (he considers The Martian Chronicles to be his first). In the late-forties Bradbury applied for a Guggenheim grant and submitted an early version of The Masks. While he didn't get the grant, he continued to tinker with it until 1952 or 1953. Editor Donn Albright has assembled the fragments into a cohesive story so the reader can compare Bradbury's first draft with later thoughts on the proposed novel. This lettered edition also includes six never-before-published stories written during this period: "The Face of Natalie," "They Never Got Mad," "The Drothldo," "In the Eye of the Beholder," "Gallagher the Great" and "The Doll." Also included are an alternate version of "Walker in the Night" and the previously unpublished "Study In Bronze," fragments of a short story written by Bradbury in 1948-49. Fine. Scarce.