A MEDICINE FOR MELANCHOLY

A collection of short stories by Ray Bradbury.

Like the earlier collection, The Golden Apples of the Sun, the facts about A Medicine For Melancholy are elusive. To begin with, the title, contents and publication date are have changed in various editions.

The first printing of this short story collection was the hardbound British edition, imprinted with a 1959 publication date. But some claim the first edition was not actually printed until 1960. 

The first UK edition was titled "The Day It Rained Forever," and omitted four of the stories which later appeared in American first edition. The first books printed with the title "A Medicine for Melancholy" were printed in Britain

Contents:

• In a Season of Calm Weather
• The Dragon
• A Medicine for Melancholy
• The End of the Beginning
• The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit
• Fever Dream
• The Marriage Mender
• The Town Where No One Got Off
• A Scent of Sarsaparilla
• Icarus Montgolfier Wright
• The Headpiece
• Dark They Were, and Golden-eyed
• The Smile
• The First Night of Lent
• The Time of Going Away
• All Summer in a Day
• The Gift
• The Great Collision of Monday Last
• The Little Mice
• The Shore Line at Sunset
• The Strawberry Window
• The Day it Rained Forever

PUBLISHING INFORMATION:

• First UK hardcover edition: London, 1959.  This edition preceded all others, but bears the title, The Day It Rained Forever. This edition also differs from the US edition in content. Four stories are eliminated and five other stories included. (One could argue that this is a separate book -- but we have adopted William F. Nolan's classification of this title as a separate edition only.)
• First US hardcover edition: Doubleday, New York, 1959. (This edition is imprinted with a 1959 publication date, but some sources claim it was not actually published until 1960.)
• First mass-market paperback edition: Bantam, 1960. This edition had numerous printings. (Bantam #A2069)
• Science Fiction Book Club (London) edition: Published in 1960 as The Day It Rained Forever.
• First mass-market UK paperback edition: Penguin Books, 1963. Titled, The Day It Rained Forever. (Penguin #1878)
• First trade paperback edition: Avon Books, 1998. The contents of this edition differ significantly from all previous editions. The stories "The Dragon," "The End of the Beginning," "Icarus Montgolfier Wright," "Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed" and "The Strawberry Window" have been omitted, and most of the stories from S is for Space have been included.