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Thank you, Mr. Bradbury (1920 – 2012)
Sad news today. Author Ray Bradbury died last night at the age of 91. Ray Bradbury is among the most celebrated, and perhaps even under-celebrated, science fiction authors. On the one hand, his masterpiece, Fahrenheit 451, appears on eight different "best of" lists, and the epic The Martian Chronicles is on seven. On the other hand, his novels never won a major science fiction award. His books have been alternately banned and required high school reading. Like many geniuses, many of his works have appreciated in value over time. Mr. Bradbury will write no more, but we are left with a body of work that I believe has only begun to show its relevance. Since I lack the eloquence to bid a proper farewell to such a great writer, I’ll let another great writer, Robert Louis Stephenson, do it for me:
Virgil of prose! far distant is the day
When at the mention of your heartfelt name
Shall shake the head, and men, oblivious, say:
‘We know him not, this master, nor his fame.’
Not for so swift forgetfulness you wrought,
Day upon day, with rapt fastidious pen,
Turning, like precious stones, with anxious thought,
This word and that again and yet again,
Seeking to match its meaning with the world;
Nor to the morning stars gave ears attent,
That you, indeed, might ever dare to be
With other praise than immortality
Unworthily content.
Thank you, Mr. Bradbury. You will be missed.
5 Comments
In 2004 "Fahrenheit 451" was awarded the 1954 retro-Hugo. He has left us an impressive canon that established a certain immortality. RIP.
I heard him interviewed once on the Coast to Coast AM radio show (in the USA). I do not remember much of what was said but I remember the reverence the host had and the general feeling that I wasn’t just listening to a person, I was listening to a legend.
My dad gave me a couple of Bradbury’s books when I was eleven…my first exposure to "grown up" science fiction. I suspect many other SF fans started with him as well. The writing will endure.
I liked this quote from Prs. Obama today:"His gift for storytelling reshaped our culture and expanded our world. But Ray also understood that our imaginations could be used as a tool for better understanding, a vehicle for change."http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-18352433
His books were among the first that I read and loved as a budding sci-fi fan. Later, while in high school, I went with my dad to hear him give a talk and take questions. I no longer remember what he said, but I still remember what a special feeling it was to go and hear the great Ray Bradbury. In reading some of his obituaries, I found out that he wrote the original version of Fahrenheit 451 in UCLA’s Powell Library, a beautiful library in which I used to work when I was a student there. It’s really something to imagine him sitting there, typing away. Perhaps somewhere, he still is…
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