The Road to Autumn’s House

This chapter examines Ray Bradbury's creativity and publishing record in two niche market genres—weird and the detective fiction—during the war years as his maturing process, both self-taught and mentored, continued. It begins with a discussion of Bradbury's relationship with the editors and publishers of Weird Tales and the frustrations he experienced as he sought to have his weird fiction printed. It then considers Bradbury's venture into detective fiction following the wartime suspension or outright demise of a number of pulp magazines catering to fantasy and science fiction, successfully placing several stories in Detective Tales, New Detective, and Dime Mystery. Under Julius Schwartz's entrepreneurial stewardship, at least thirty-eight Bradbury short stories from this period circulated, but failed to sell.