With Cat for Comforter

by Ray Bradbury, Louise Reinoehl Max (Illustrator)

First edition bound in blue boards, illustrated by Louise Reinoehl Max. 12mo size, unpaginated. Fine in fine dj.

Genres: Poetry

Hardcover

First published September 1, 1997

About the author

Ray Douglas Bradbury was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery, and realistic fiction.

Bradbury is best known for his novel Fahrenheit 451 (1953) and his short-story collections The Martian Chronicles (1950), The Illustrated Man (1951), and The October Country (1955). Other notable works include the coming of age novel Dandelion Wine (1957), the dark fantasy Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962) and the fictionalized memoir Green Shadows, White Whale (1992). He also wrote and consulted on screenplays and television scripts, including Moby Dick and It Came from Outer Space. Many of his works were adapted into television and film productions as well as comic books. Bradbury also wrote poetry which has been published in several collections, such as They Have Not Seen the Stars (2001).

The New York Times called Bradbury "An author whose fanciful imagination, poetic prose, and mature understanding of human character have won him an international reputation" and "the writer most responsible for bringing modern science fiction into the literary mainstream".

Reviews

[Danielle Palmer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the idea of a cat on your bed being both the comforter (blanket) and comforter (peaceful purring companion). I’m disappointed the author did not include a picture of his cat Tater Ho-ichi. My favorite lines were “feel something change your face - an after midnight smile” and “his restful sound now yours, his sound the hearth that cures.”
I especially liked the art piece of cats napping on giant sunflowers

[Angie Boyter · Rating 4 out of 5]

4++ but not quite a 5 ; see below!
If this picture book were a prescription for tension, I'd give it a 5. It is one of the best tranquilizers I can imagine! That is due to 2 aspects. The first is the WONDERUL drawings by Louise Reinoehl Max, which gave me a new smile on every page. I also very much enjoyed Ray Bradbury's introduction to the book about his lifelong history with cats, including the time when he was a child and his family's two cats gave birth to 13 kittens on the same day!
I have been a lifelong fan of Ray Bradbury, which is how I was attracted to this book, and I am doubly glad he became an SF writer, because he certainly would not have made it as a poet. That is the reason I could not quite force myself to give it 5 stars.

[Vikk Simmons · Rating 4 out of 5]

In my family, cats go in tandem with dogs. I enjoyed the poem and loved the illustrations. It's also a lovely companion to the the picture book poem Dogs Think That Every Day is Christmas.

Bradbury also writes beautifully of the meaning of cats in his life and gives moments all cat lovers share in one way or another.

[Heydi Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

The fact that Ray Bradbury wrote a poem about cats just makes me love him all the more. He's one of my favorite authors and this poem is so sweet. So happy to have found this.

[Bentley&Lou · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the introduction to this book as much as the book itself.

[Mark Oppenlander · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a picture book, illustrating a Bradbury poem about sleeping cats. Cute, but I'm more of a dog person at the end of the day.