For more than sixty years, the imagination of Ray Bradbury has opened doors into remarkable places, ushering us across unexplored territories of the heart and mind while leading us inexorably toward a profound understanding of ourselves and the universe we inhabit. In this landmark volume, America's preeminent storyteller offers us one hundred treasures from a lifetime of words and ideas. The stories within these pages were chosen by Bradbury himself, and span a career that blossomed in the pulp magazines of the early 1940s and continues to flourish in the new millennium. Here are representatives of the legendary author's finest works of short fiction, including many that have not been republished for decades, all forever fresh and vital, evocative and immensely entertaining.

Introduction -- Whole town's sleeping -- Rocket -- Season of disbelief -- And the rock cried out -- Drummer boy of Shiloh -- Beggar on O'Connell bridge -- Flying machine -- Heavy-set -- First night of Lent -- Lafayette, farewell -- Remember Sascha? -- Junior -- Woman on the lawn -- February 1999: Ylla -- Banshee -- One for his lordship, and one for the road! -- Laurel and Hardy love affair -- Unterderseaboat doctor -- Another fine mess -- Dwarf -- Wild night in Galway -- Wind -- No news, or what killed the dog? -- Little journey -- Any friend of Nicholas Nickleby's is a friend of mine -- Garbage collector -- Visitor -- Man -- Henry the ninth -- Messiah -- Bang! You're dead! -- Darling Adolf -- Beautiful shave -- Colonel Stonesteel's genuine home-made truly Egyptian mummy -- I see you never -- Exiles -- At midnight, in the month of June -- Witch door -- Watchers -- 2004-05: Naming of names -- Hopscotch -- Illustrated man -- Dead man -- June 2001: And the moon be still as bright -- Burning man -- G.B.S.-Mark V -- Blade of grass -- Sound of summer running -- And the sailor, home from the sea -- Lonely ones -- Finnegan -- On the Orient, North -- Smiling people -- Fruit at the bottom of the bowl -- Bug -- Downwind from Gettysburg -- Time in the thy flight -- Changeling -- Dragon -- Let's play "poison" -- Cold wind and the warm -- Meadow -- Kilimanjaro device -- Man in the rorschach shirt -- Bless me, father, for I have sinned -- Pedestrian -- Trapdoor -- Swan -- Sea shell -- Once more, legato -- June 2003: Way in the middle of the air -- Wonderful death of Dudley Stone -- By the numbers! -- April 2005: Usher II -- Square pegs -- Trolley -- Smile -- Miracles of Jamie -- Far-away guitar -- Cistern -- Machineries of joy -- Bright Phoenix -- Wish -- Lifework of Juan Diaz -- Time invervening/interim -- Almost the end of the world -- Great collision of Monday last -- Poems -- April 2026: Long years -- Icarus Montgolfier Wright -- Death and the maiden -- Zero hour -- Toynbee convector -- Forever and the earth -- Handler -- Getting through Sunday somehow -- Pumpernickel -- Last rites -- Watchful poker chip of H. Matisse -- All on a summer's night.