Remembering Ray Bradbury

June 07, 2012

Acclaimed author Ray Bradbury passed away late on Tuesday night at the age of 91. I'm a huge fan of Bradbury's writing, mostly due to my father's influence. I read and reread The Martian Chronicles when all my friends were still reading The Babysitter's Club books.

I was only able to meet Bradbury once in my life when I was a young teenager and he came to Kansas City to give a lecture. I was too nervous to say much of anything while he signed my copy of Fahrenheit 451, though my dad more than made up for this, listing off every pulp novel story of his that he had read as a child in the 1940s. Bradbury jokingly told my dad that he was making him feel very old. Well, I'm happy to say that the author lived a long life well past that point. He was as prolific as he was imaginative, writing hundreds of stories over the course of his life, though a stroke did prevent him from writing much in recent years. There is an excellent article on his life on The New York Times' website.

If you haven't yet read anything by Bradbury, you are missing out on one of the truly unique voices in American literature. We have quite a bit of his work in the MCPL collection. I would suggest starting with any of his short stories, especially those collected in The Martian Chronicles or with Dandelion Wine.

Liesl C.
Excelsior Springs Branch