“What prompted me to write a book about masks? The masks themselves. Yes, exactly them!”

A unique edition of the unfinished novel “Masks” and several stories by the great Ray Bradbury, written in the same period 1947–1954. The events in the novel take place not in a supernatural or science-fiction environment, but in the dimension of interpersonal relationships, where a lonely person sculpts a false face for himself, reacting sharply to the indifference of the world around him. Ray Bradbury nominated his novel “Masks” for a Guggenheim Fellowship in October 1949. The book contains recommendations, letters, and documents that Bradbury himself filled out. “I hope to shine a sharp spotlight on our civilization: where is it and where is it going? I hope to dissect the stupidity, pride and vulgarity of man in order to make him more enlightened, and therefore better.” The theme of masks will find its development in The Martian Chronicles of 1950, Bradbury's recognized masterpiece, where masks play an important role and function both on a psychological level and on the level of social criticism.

Bradbury did not return to work on “Masks” after 1950. The eighty pages found from this unpublished novel were arranged in a logical sequence by researchers of Ray Bradbury’s work, Donn Albright and Jonathan Eller, in this publication. The first pages form a condensed version of the unfinished novel. The rest are fragments of ideas that Ray Bradbury played out. Before us is twenty-five-year-old Bradbury. It was during this time that he met his future wife, Margaret McClure, and began corresponding with Don Congdon, a young editor. After Bradbury and Maggie's marriage, Congdon became Bradbury's agent. Both relationships lasted a lifetime.

And for us, this is the discovery of another priceless page in the life and work of the Great Master.