I came across this fair-condition hardcover at the Book Cellar, and as I'm a big fan of Bradbury's work I had to pick it up. I'd read several of the stories here when they were first published, among them "Homecoming" and "Uncle Einar", both of which I loved - though "Homecoming" ended with a very poignant note concerning young Timothy, a mortal foundling who loves his supernatural family but feels very much an outsider.

This book collects all the stories about this family, adds some connecting tales, and tweaks a few to insert references to the overall storyline, resulting in a look at the joy of a family reunion and the sorrow when that family must disperse. While I did feel that this story wasn't as strong as the individual tales were on their own, I enjoyed visiting the family again, and finding out just how Timothy managed to cope with his unusual relatives - and his own life on the border of reality and the supernatural. And this book gives Cecy, the beautiful dreamer whose mind can travel anywhere (and take possession of anyone) while her body lies in a room in the attic, a potential future too - though that story ends on a somewhat ambiguous note. [The chapter "West of October" has Cecy stepping in to preserve the traveling spirits of four cousins whose bodies are destroyed in a fire, something that could have been tragic but, for these beings, is a temporary inconvenience. The way she copes with four rambunctious young male spirits is very entertaining!]

There's an afterword explaining how the book came to be, and revealing that Bradbury had originally planned to write many stories about the family, with Charles Addams to illustrate them - oh, the possibilities! Turns out that Addams only did one illustration, the extensive cover-art for this book, and while he and Bradbury stayed in touch they didn't work together again. But I enjoyed reading about the process behind this book.

I plan to leave this book on the book-swap shelf in the Tyngsboro post office lobby at around 11. Hope the finder enjoys it!

*** Released for the 2014 Four Elements challenge, for "dust". ***