Author Ray Bradbury at the 12th Annual Art Directors Guild Awards in February, 2008. Picture: Getty Images Source: Getty Images
US author Ray Bradbury, known for his fantasy and science fiction works including "Fahrenheit 451," "The Martian Chronicles," and "Something Wicked This Way Comes" died today at the age of 91, the blog io9 reported.
Bradbury published more than 500 works including short stories, novels, plays, screenplays, television scripts and verse, according to his website.
When asked where he got his imagination, the Illinois native once said, "I simply lament 'God here and there makes madness a calling.'"
According to io9, Bradbury's family and his biographer, Sam Weller, both confirmed his death. No cause was given.
Bradbury's grandson, Danny Karapetian told the site, "His legacy lives on in his monumental body of books, film, television and theatre, but more importantly, in the minds and hearts of anyone who read him, because to read him was to know him. He was the biggest kid I know."
The author, who was born August 22, 1920 in Waukegan, Illinois, moved to Los Angeles with his family in 1934 and graduated from high school there. He did not attend college, saying later, "libraries raised me. I don't believe in colleges and universities."
His first money as a writer came from comedian George Burns, who paid him for submitting a joke to radio's Burns and Allen Show.
He began writing full-time in 1943 and his first collection of short stories, Dark Carnival, was published in 1947.
The 1950 publication of The Martian Chronicles, about man's attempt to colonise Mars, established his reputation as a master of science fiction.
Perhaps his best known work, the short novel Farenheit 451, set in a future society that bans the written word and burns books, was published in 1953 and made into a film in 1966. Farenheit 451 refers to the temperature at which paper ignites.
According to one report, Bradbury wanted the words "Author of Farenheit 451" engraved on his tombstone.
Another of his well-known works, Something Wicked This Way Comes, about two boys and their experience with a harrowing travelling carnival, was published in 1962.
Bradbury also hosted television's The Ray Bradbury Theater, based on his short stories, from 1986-92.
He married Marguerite McClure in 1947 and they had four daughters. She died in 2003.
Read more at io9.
Post your tributes to the great author below.
0 comments:
Post a Comment