Ray Bradbury in Finland

As I promised, here are some of the Finnish covers for Ray Bradbury's books.

The Martian Chronicles as Marsin aikakirjat (literal translation). Otava 1953. I don't know the illustrator, could be foreign for all I know. This was the first Bradbury published in Finnish in book form; there were some earlier magazine publications, though.

The second edition of Marsin aikakirjat, also by Otava, this time in 1974. The translation is the same, and it's abridged, I'm afraid. Don't know even the illustrator for this. (Mind you, I have these books, but I don't really know where they are. It's easier to find the scans in the web than to scan my shelves.)

I believe this one is by one Piotr Tomaszewski (who was Polish originally, I think), since he did lots of covers for the Kirjayhtymä science fiction series in the seventies. I'm not actually sure, but I think this if from 1975.










Another one from the Kirjayhtymä publishers and also, I think, by Piotr  Tomaszewski. We've never really gone for outlandish pulpy covers here in Finland, have we? This is The October Country, the Finnish translation (and the only printing) is from 1985.

Something Wicked This Way Comes, my favourite from Bradbury's novels, was published here as Painajainen/Nightmare. The publisher was the high-literary Tajo that did lots of new novels and some poetry, Allen Ginsberg for example. There was a second edition of the novel, the same translation (by Jertta Roos) under the title Paha saapuu portin taa (which is almost literal). Did you know the film based on this, directed by Jack Clayton, was banned in Finland? It was shown for the first time in television in 1995.

The Other Heavens AKA Toiset taivaat was one of the short story collections Markku Sadelehto compiled in the nineties. The range of the book is from the old pulp stories to the science fiction classics of the sixties. This one has also "Lorelei of the Red Mist", collaborated with Leigh Brackett (and I, for one, happen to think Brackett does better than Bradbury). The cover is by a friend of mine, Jukka Murtosaari, and the book was published in 1992 by WSOY.










The Early Shadows is supposed to be Bradbury's own idea for another short story collection that came out in 1998, also compiled by Sadelehto. I didn't check the book, but I was told that this was also done by Jukka Murtosaari.

Death Is a Lonely Business, as Kuolema on yksinäinen juttu (very literal translation), was for long my favourite Bradbury. I haven't read it in years, but I just might, one of these days, to see if it will hold up. I'm not sure about the illustrator.