In his loosely autobiographical novel,
Dandelion Wine(1957),
Ray Bradbury re-imagined the myth of American childhood as a haunted fairy tale that exists at the intersection of Norman Rockwell and EC Comics. The pull of his fictional landscape has become so influential to generations of readers that it is difficult to imagine how we lived—or dreamed—without it. For behind every story of preteen kids stumbling upon a mutilated body in the woods (
Stand By Me) or secretly raising an extra-terrestrial while hiding from zealous FBI agents (
E.T.), are the wild, affectionate tales that comprise this miraculous ode to childhood. While the book draws on Bradbury’s own experiences growing up in Waukegan, Illinois, the book’s true provenance is in the imagination of adolescence, where…
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Citation: Grasso, Joshua. "Dandelion Wine". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 11 August 2023 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=5740, accessed 24 November 2024.]
