A Reverie For Mister Ray

''A Reverie for Mister Ray: Reflections on Life, Death, and Speculative Fiction'' is a collection of nonfiction work by American writer Michael Bishop published in 2005 by PS Publishing. It includes essays and reviews from 1975 to 2004, originally published in a wide variety of newspapers, magazines, literary journals, and fanzines. Most of the pieces concern the speculative fiction genre. The book was edited by Michael H. Hutchins.

Contents

Upfront

* A Reverie for Mister Mike: An Introduction by Jeff VanderMeer
* Alien Graffiti: Author’s Apologia by Michael Bishop
* On the Road: Editor’s Preface by Michael H. Hutchins

Drawing from the Wells

* A Reverie for Mister Ray 981* A Classic Affair 990* "An Art Is Something You Have to Learn”: RIP Clifton Fadiman 999* Little, Big, Witless, Wise: ''Gulliver’s Travels'' by Jonathan Swift 004* Flannery and Me 001* More Than a Masterpiece? '' More Than Human'' by Theodore Sturgeon 989* A Classic’s Endearing Quirks: '' The Left Hand of Darkness'' by Ursula K. Le Guin 977

State of the Art

* Evangels of Hope 978* Believers and Heretics: An Episcopal Bull 980* The Knack and How to Get It, See? 978* The Contributors to Plenum Four 975* Light Years and Dark: Science Fiction Since 1960 984* Children Who Survive: An Autobiographical Meditation on Horror Fiction 989* 104 Really Cool Works of Twentieth-Century Fiction in English 000

On Reviewing

* Oh, to Be a Blurber! 980* On Reviewing and Being Reviewed 977* Critics’ Night at the Sci-Fi Bistro 979

Pitching Pennies Against the Starboard Bulkhead

* '' The Fifth Head of Cerberus'' by Gene Wolfe 976* '' Timescape'' by Gregory Benford 980* '' Wild Seed'' by Octavia Butler 981* ''Myths of the Near Future'' by J. G. Ballard 984* Two by John Crowley: '' Little, Big'' 983and '' Antiquities: Seven Stories'' 994* ''Speaker for the Dead'' by Orson Scott Card 987* ''The Toynbee Convector'' by Ray Bradbury 988* Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars Trilogy 993/94/96* ''Nightfishing in Great Sky River'' by David Lunde 000* ''The Wooden Sea'' by Jonathan Carroll 001* ''He Do the Time Police in Different Voices'' by David Langford 004* The Untethered Spacewalk by NASA 984

Going Deeper

* In Pursuit of Ubik: A Novel by Philip K. Dick 979* Gene Wolfe as Hero: ''The Shadow of the Torturer'' 980* Only in America: ''On Wings of Song'' by Thomas M. Disch 981* James Morrow and ''Towing Jehovah'' 994* James Morrow’s Antidote X: Speculative Satire and ''The Eternal Footman'' 000* The Education of Brian W. Aldiss: ''The Twinkling of an Eye, or, My Life as an Englishman'' 999* “Sitting in the Sun in the Waist-High Grass”: “The Last Day in July” by Gardner Dozois 001* In Praise of Hollyhocks: “The Aliens Who Knew, I Mean, Everything” by George Alec Effinger 004

Fellow Travelers

* A Speculation of SF Writers: Gardner Dozois / Suzette Haden Elgin / Steven Utley / Ian Watson 980* All That Glitters is Not Golding . . . Or Bishop Either 984/85* James Tiptree, Jr. is Raccoona Sheldon is Alice B. Sheldon is Alli is… 985/92* Saluting Pamela Sargent 987* The Once and Future Andy Duncan 000* Voice and Virtue: Celebrating Jack McDevitt 003

Rolling the Bones

* Ink and Inspiration Among the Soft Sciences 981* Lucy in the Mud With Footprints: ''Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind'' by Donald C. Johanson and Maitland A. Edey 981* The Boy in the Bush: ''Lightning Bird'' by Lyall Watson 982* Mysteries of the Rift Valley: ''One Life'' by Richard E. Leakey and ''Disclosing the Past'' by Mary Leakey 984* The Fate of the Primate: ''The Deluge and the Ark: A Journey Into Primate Worlds'' by Dale Peterson 989* Prospectus for a Novel of Human Prehistory, or The Origins of ''No Enemy But Time'' 982

Edge Running

* Primates in Love: ''The Female of the Species'' by Lionel Shriver 987* Geniuses in One Another’s Pockets: ''Neighboring Lives'' by Thomas M. Disch and Charles Naylor 981* Two by J. G. Ballard: '' Empire of the Sun'' and '' The Day of Creation'' 984/1988* Two by Philip K. Dick: ''In Milton Lumky Territory'' and ''The Man Whose Teeth Were All Exactly Alike'' 985* A Jeremiad, Three Reviews and a Postscript: '' Death is a Lonely Business'' by Ray Bradbury / '' Galápagos'' by Kurt Vonnegut / ''Contact'' by Carl Sagan 985* Inconvenient Invitations: ''Mister Touch'' by Malcolm Bosse / ''Brazzaville Beach'' by William Boyd 991* Watching the Elephant Vanish: ''The Elephant Vanishes'' by Haruki Murakami 994* A Near-Future Southern, An Off-Trail Western: ''Land O’ Goshen'' by Charles McNair and ''Redeye'' by Clyde Edgerton 995* A Larger Sky: ''The Norton Book of Ghost Stories'' edited by Brad Leithauser / ''Seaward'' by Brad Leithauser 995* An American Wordsmith in Atlantis: ''Atlantis: Three Tales'' by Samuel R. Delany 996* Touring the Republic of Pain: ''Ingenious Pain'' by Andrew Miller 998* Encounter of a Wee Kind 978

Open Heart

* Military Brat: A Memoir 997* First Novel, Seventh Novel: ''A Funeral for the Eyes of Fire'' 988* My Private Civil War: Preface to ''Confederacy of the Dead'' 993* Three Tributes: Paul Di Filippo / David Hartwell / Howard Waldrop 001-2003* Cleansing the Eye of the Heart: ''A Dream of the Tattered Man'' by Randolph Loney 001* Ghost of a Chance: ''My Father’s Ghost'' by Suzy McKee Charnas 003* Nine Prescriptions for My Funeral 997* Writing Science Fiction As If It Mattered (including “Tiny Bells” by Bruce Holland Rogers) 002

External links

Michael Bishop's official homepage



Publisher’s page

The Alien Online article and interview

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reverie for Mister Ray
Essay collections
2005 non-fiction books
PS Publishing books