The literary community loses a titan with the death yesterday of Ray Bradbury, science fiction Grand Master and lifelong champion of free speech, best known for his dystopian fable of book-burning, Fahrenheit 451 (1953).
The literary community loses a titan with the death yesterday of Ray Bradbury, science fiction Grand Master and lifelong champion of free speech, best known for his dystopian fable of book-burning, Fahrenheit 451 (1953). Bradbury’s other acclaimed works include The Martian Chronicles (1950), a group of short stories gathered together into a loosely-connected novel of sorts, as well as Dandelion Wine (1957) and Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962), two powerful coming-of-age stories set in an idyllic, fictional Midwestern community called Green Town. Both were very realistic on a human level in spite of their fantastic elements (which were far more prominent in the latter). And on a personal note, I have to mention Death Is A Lonely Business (1985), a late-career peak for Bradbury, which straddled the lines dividing mystery, fantasy, and historical fiction, and was the first book I ever read that made me want to be a writer.
Here is Bradbury discussing the creation of Fahrenheit 451:
