Dandelion Wine is a popular book that has never been out of print since its first publication in 1957. Often assigned to students in junior and senior high schools, Dandelion Wine is a book much-loved by readers and critics alike. Nevertheless, the book did not receive as much early attention as it might have. As George Slusser in his article "Ray Bradbury" in the Dictionary of Literary Biography notes in 1978, although Bradbury is an important writer, he has "unjustly suffered from critical neglect." Likewise, Marvin E. Mengeling, in his 1971 article "Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine: Themes Sources, and Style," in English Journal, argues that although "Ray Bradbury happens to be one of America's major prose writers. . . . his works have been abysmally neglected by critics."

Like a number of later critics, Mengeling addresses this need in both the English Journal article, published in 1971, and much later in his book...