In Memoriam: Ray Bradbury
Steven L. Taylor
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Wednesday, June 6, 2012
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7 comments
Via io9: R.I.P. Ray Bradbury, Author of Fahrenheit 451and The Martian Chronicles
Ray Bradbury — author of The Martian Chronicles, Fahrenheit 451, Something Wicked this Way Comes, and many more literary classics — died this morning in Los Angeles, at the age of 91.
We’ve got confirmation from the family as well as his biographer, Sam Weller.
He leaves behind an impressive literary legacy.
I well remember reading the Martian Chronicles in middle school.
Rest in peace.
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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So it goes.
I well remember reading the Martian Chronicles in middle school.
Me too, and Fahrenheit 451 in high school.
So is he being cremated?
The Martian Chronicles was one of my favorite books, and Fahrenheit 451 is a classic. Putting both on my reading list to re-read.
He will be missed.
In today’s pervasive culture of body ink we might want to think about Bradbury’s The Illustrated Man(1951).
As I remembered, per WikiP “The unrelated stories are tied together by the frame device of “the Illustrated Man”, a vagrant with a tattooed body whom the unnamed narrator meets. The man’s tattoos, allegedly created by a woman from the future, are animated and each tell a different tale.”
One story, The Long Rain makes for good reading during a drought.
I read both Fahrenheit 451 and The Illustrated Man in high school, and to me, Bradbury’s fiction stands up well in comparison with many other so-called classics.
Vaya con dios, Ray.
… all the above… and Dandelion Wine
Ray Bradbury also did a series of mystery novels based on his experiences writing in Hollywood during the Golden Age of cinema. Highly recommended. And there’s his memoirs of writing the screenplay for Moby Dick (directed by John Huston) while in Ireland. Also highly recommended.
In fact, I can’t think of anything of Bradbury’s that I’ve read and not thought: “wow!”