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I Sing the Body Electric (Bradbury)
Encyclopedia
I Sing the Body Electric! is a 1969
collection of short stories
by Ray Bradbury
. The book takes its name from a line in Leaves of Grass
by Walt Whitman
.
1969 in literature
The year 1969 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* The first Booker Prize is awarded.* "Penelope Ashe", author of the bestselling novel Naked Came the Stranger, is found to be several people who each took a turn writing a chapter of what they described as "junk" in...
collection of short stories
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
by Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury
Ray Douglas Bradbury is an American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer. Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and for the science fiction stories gathered together as The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man , Bradbury is one of the most celebrated among 20th...
. The book takes its name from a line in Leaves of Grass
Leaves of Grass
Leaves of Grass is a poetry collection by the American poet Walt Whitman . Though the first edition was published in 1855, Whitman spent his entire life writing Leaves of Grass, revising it in several editions until his death...
by Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman
Walter "Walt" Whitman was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse...
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Contents
The collection includes these stories:- "The Kilimanjaro Device"
- "The Terrible Conflagration Up at the Place"
- "Tomorrow's Child"
- "The Women"
- "The Inspired Chicken Motel"
- "Downwind from Gettysburg"
- "Yes, We'll Gather at the River"
- "The Cold Wind and the Warm"
- "Night Call, Collect"
- "The Haunting of the New"
- "I Sing the Body Electric!": a child, Agatha, is unwilling to accept an Electrical Grandmother as a surrogate for her dead mother, until the Grandmother demonstrates her own immortality.
- "The Tombling Day"
- "Any Friend of Nicholas Nickleby's Is a Friend of Mine"
- "Heavy-Set"
- "The Man in the Rorschach Shirt"
- "Henry the Ninth"
- "The Lost City of Mars"
- "Christus Apollo"
In popular culture
- The title story, "I Sing the Body Electric!", was adapted into a Twilight ZoneThe Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)The Twilight Zone is an American anthology television series created by Rod Serling, which ran for five seasons on CBS from 1959 to 1964. The series consisted of unrelated episodes depicting paranormal, futuristic, dystopian, or simply disturbing events; each show typically featured a surprising...
episode of the same nameI Sing the Body Electric (The Twilight Zone)"I Sing the Body Electric" is the 100th episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.The script was written by Ray Bradbury, and based on his short story of the same name, itself named after a Walt Whitman poem. Although Bradbury contributed several scripts to The Twilight...
, with Bradbury as writer of the teleplay. - It was also adapted as a television movie, The Electric GrandmotherThe Electric GrandmotherThe Electric Grandmother is a 1982 television movie based on the short story "I Sing the Body Electric" by Ray Bradbury. It stars Maureen Stapleton and Edward Herrmann and was directed by Noel Black. Bradbury's story was previously adapted for television in 1962 as "I Sing the Body Electric", an...
, starring Maureen StapletonMaureen StapletonMaureen Stapleton was an American actress in film, theater and television.-Early life:Stapleton was born Lois Maureen Stapleton in Troy, New York, the daughter of Irene and John P. Stapleton, and grew up in a strict Irish American Catholic family...
. - The Canadian band Rush produced a song titled "The Body ElectricThe Body ElectricThe Body Electric: Electromagnetism and the Foundation of Life is a book by Robert O. Becker and Gary Selden in which Becker, an orthopedic surgeon at the time working for the Veterans Administration, describes his research into "our bioelectric selves"....
" on its album Grace Under PressureGrace Under Pressure (Rush album)Grace Under Pressure is the tenth studio album by the Canadian rock band Rush, released in 1984 . A symbol for the album is the letter "p" above a line with the letter "g" below ....
. - It was also a 1972 album by the band Weather Report—the second album released by the band.