Originally published by L.S. Media June 7th 2012
One of the finest writers of his and subsequent generations, Ray Bradbury, has died after a lengthy illness at the age of 91.
The American fantasy, horror, science fiction and mystery writer, was best known for his dystopian 1953 Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles. He was born in Waukegan, Illinois in 1920 to Esther Bradbury, nee Moberg and Leonard Spaulding Bradbury. A keen reader throughout his youth, he was related to the America Shakespearian scholar Douglas Spaulding. Bradbury was greatly influenced by the writings of Edgar Allan Poe whom he was impressed by his ability to draw readers into his work. He also read H.G. Wells, Jules Verne and the creator of Tarzan, Edgar Rice Burroughs.
It can be no surprise that writing soon followed and the young Ray Bradbury created his own follow up to Burroughs’ The Warlord of Mars at the age of 12.
To Ray Bradbury the world in what we live in today really was never a stranger. He anticipated the likes of interactive television, I-pods and electronic surveillance. His views on how he foresaw the world and the way it would change after the Second World War and his influence upon it were reinforced by noted Hollywood Director Steven Spielberg. He stated that Ray Bradbury was his muse for the better part of his own sci-fi career. “On the world of science fiction and fantasy and imagination he is immortal.”
All that seemed a far cry from pre-war America. With his father seeking regular employment, The Bradbury family lived in Tucson, Arizona in 1926-1927 and again between1932-1933 before each time returning to Waukegan. They eventually settled in Los Angeles where Bradbury graduated from Los Angeles High School where took short story writing courses and poetry which furthered his approach to writing.
A great proponent of the library system, he said of his time in the Depression hit America, “Libraries raised me…I believe in libraries because most students don’t have any money, When I graduated from high school, it was during the Depression and we had no money. I couldn’t go to college, so I went to the library three days a week for 10 years.”
Ray Bradbury was close friends with two of America’s other iconic figures, Charles Addams, who illustrated Bradbury’s story about The Elliotts and who would find fame as the creator of the classic cartoon and subsequent television programme The Addams Family. He was also great friends with Ray Harryhausen. During a speech for BAFTA’s 2010 awards tribute to celebrate the animator’s 90th birthday, he spoke of meeting the young man and their shared love of science fiction. It was the beginning of a life-long friendship that was only bettered some would say by his marriage to wife Marguerite McClure which lasted from 1947 to her death in 2003.
Despite a stroke in 1999 that left the writer dependent on a wheelchair for mobility, he continued to write throughout his old age and had even written an essay on his inspiration for writing for the New Yorker published a week preceding his death.
Perhaps the last word should belong to Ray Bradbury himself. “There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.”
Ray Douglas Bradbury: born August 22ndh 1920, Died June 6th 2012.
Ian D. Hall