Ray Bradbury, a passionate sci-fi writer with the gifts of a painter
Ray Bradbury wrote his more than 500 stories, novels, plays, and poems on a typewriter, creating imagery that helped bring sci-fi and fantasy into the mainstream of American popular culture.
In this 2000 photo, author Ray Bradbury poses for a photo in Los Angeles.
AP/File
Los Angeles
Author Ray Bradbury was a passionate, professional wordsmith who wrote his more than 500 short stories, novels, plays, and聽poems on a typewriter.聽He loved the feel and smell of聽printed words on paper and聽began a lifelong love affair with libraries at an early age.
Mr. Bradbury, who died late Tuesday, often聽recounted how he penned his most famous novel, 鈥�Fahrenheit 451,鈥� in the basement of the UCLA library where he could rent a typewriter for a dime per half hour.
But, in the end, say colleagues聽and fans, it is聽his images that聽helped elevate the world of science fiction and fantasy from the fringes into the heart of聽modern American popular culture, paving the way for聽such mainstream hits as 鈥�E.T.鈥� and Harry Potter.
鈥淏radbury had the gift of a writer, but the soul of a painter,鈥� says Fordham University Professor Paul Levinson,聽a former president of the Science Fiction Writers of America who knew and worked with the writer on author events.
Bradbury鈥檚 short stories were particularly聽well-suited to聽being adapted for TV and film, points out Robert Thompson, founder of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture in Syracuse, N.Y. 鈥淭hey were so visual and full of powerful imagery, they were almost like miniature treatments for a movie rather than a piece of literature,鈥� he adds.
鈥淏radbury just exuded this kind of folksiness that made his works extremely visual,鈥� says George Slusser, a professor emeritus at the University聽of California at Riverside, which gave Bradbury a lifetime achievement award in science fiction at the Eaton Science Fiction Conference held in 2008.
Bradbury鈥檚 most well-known works 鈥� such as 鈥淔ahrenheit 451,鈥澛� 鈥淭he Martian Chronicles,鈥� and 鈥淭he Illustrated Man,鈥� which all became聽highly-touted films or TV series 鈥� were so successful precisely because they dealt with images in the mind, the stuff of poetry, says聽Professor Slusser.聽鈥淗e is the last of the great American writers who evoke that kind of Midwestern聽American world,鈥� he says,聽artists that include other American greats such as painter Edward Hopper and novelist Willa Cather.
鈥淎 lot of science fiction writing came out of that Midwestern, iconic American experience that Bradbury defined,鈥� he adds, pointing to the writer鈥檚 Illinois childhood.
Hollywood luminaries paid tribute to Bradbury on Wednesday.聽 Director Steven Spielberg聽issued a statement calling Bradbury an immortal, adding that he was聽鈥渕y muse for the better part of my sci-fi career.鈥�
However, Bradbury himself eschewed the label of聽science fiction, preferring the label of fantasy for most of his works other than 鈥淔ahrenheit.鈥� 鈥淚鈥檓 not a science fiction writer,鈥� he once said. 鈥淔antasies are things that can鈥檛 happen, and science fiction is about things that can happen.鈥�
Bradbury achieved this sort of聽iconic power because he largely 鈥渄idn鈥檛 see boundaries in writing,鈥� points out Slusser, noting that Bradbury never attended college聽and often quoted Mark Twain who once quipped, 鈥渘ever let college get in the way of a good education.鈥�
Bradbury often said he spent his lifetime聽mining what happened to him up to the age of 12 or 13.聽He took the stuff of a Midwestern boy鈥檚 life 鈥� experiences with a traveling carnival and the聽Tarzan books of Edgar Rice Burroughs, for instance聽鈥� and聽wove them into powerful聽projections of聽American life and values聽in a near-future time, such as聽when Americans might travel to Mars.聽
Bradbury himself commented at the 2008 UC Riverside conference on just how powerful those dreams still were for him, telling the audience that聽after his death, his ashes should be sent to Mars.
鈥淚 want to be the first dead person on Mars,鈥� he said, 鈥渙ne way or another, I鈥檒l get there.鈥澛�