The Illustrated Man

First published in 1951, this is a collection of science-fiction stories framed by a carnival worker whose tattoos move and enact the tales. Typical pieces concern a children's nursery that becomes a killing African veldt, astronauts stranded on Venus in endless rain, a rocket-man whose family waits through launches, mechanical grandparents in a future house, and a children's invasion game played on ordinary lawns. The frame watches the pictures at dusk on a country road. The book is a story cycle about technology and fear, not a single novel.

Bound in metallic pale brown buckram cover printed with a colour design. Fawn slipcase front blocked with a dark blue design. Red endpapers.