The Martian Chronicles. by BRADBURY, Ray - 1950

Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1950. A signed cornerstone of science fiction First edition, first printing, signed by the author on the front free endpaper. This was Bradbury's debut novel, and founded his reputation, propelling him from jobbing short story writer to "Poet of the Pulps".
The Martian Chronicles is a "fix-up" woven from several of Bradbury's previously published short stories. It quickly became a science fiction classic, with Bradbury remarking in his acceptance speech for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters that Christopher Isherwood's laudatory review helped secure the book's reputation: "[Isherwood] introduced me to the intellectual world and saved my soul". The review, Isherwood's first, claimed that "the sheer lift and power of a truly original imagination exhilarates you, almost in spite of yourself. So, I urge even the squeamish to try Mr. Bradbury. His is a very great and unusual talent" (quoted in Bundrick). Octavo. Original pale green cloth, spine lettered in red. With dust jacket. Spine sunned, covers slightly bowed and marked, top edge a little soiled, fore edge a touch foxed, slight offsetting to free endpapers. A very good copy indeed in jacket, spine panel lightly sunned, spine panel ends creased, shallow chips to spine panel ends and corners, a little toning and rubbing to edges, a few spots of foxing to verso, rear panel lightly soiled, front panel bright and fresh. Bleiler, Supernatural Fiction 255; Locke, Vol. I, p. 39. "Ray Bradbury Accepts the 2000 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters", 15 November 2000, National Book Foundation; Christopher Bundrick, "Gothic Aspects of Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles", Fafnir, vol. 6, no. 1, 2019, available online.