American science-fiction writer Ray Bradbury has died in Los Angeles at the age of 91. One of his four daughters, Alexandra, confirmed that her father passed away on Tuesday night in Southern California, although she did not give any further details.
Bradbury wrote hundreds of novels, short stories, plays and television and film scripts in a career dating back to the 1940s. His most famous novels include Fahrenheit 451 and Something Wicked This Way Comes.
Ray was born in 1920 in Illinois and, as a teenager, moved with his family to Los Angeles. For three years, after leaving school, he earned a living selling newspapers, writing in his spare time. From the early 1940s, his short stories started to appear in magazines such as Weird Tales, Astounding Science Fiction and Captain Future. In 1947, he married Marguerite ‘Maggie’ McClure and published his first book, a collection of short stories, Dark Carnival.
Three years later, Bradbury began to establish his reputation with The Martian Chronicles. They were a collection of stories about materialistic Earthmen colonising and ruinously exploiting Mars, a commentary on the Cold War. It was turned into a memorably bizarre TV mini-series starring Rock Hudson.
Ray’s most celebrated novel, Fahrenheit 451, published in 1953, depicts a future society where books are banned and firemen start fires rather than put them out, a critique on the evils of censorship and thought control in a totalitarian state. The story, which gets its title from the temperature at which paper spontaneously ignites, proved to be uncannily prophetic. The characters are addicted to TV soap operas, while miniature headphones provide a stream of music and news. A film version starring Julie Christie, photographed by Nicolas Roeg with a music score by Hitchcock-composer Bernard Herrmann, directed by Francois Truffaut, was released in 1966.
For years, Bradbury tried to prevent the publication of Fahrenheit 451 as an e-book. He told the New York Times that electronic books “smell like burned fuel” and called the internet “a big distraction”. “It’s meaningless; it’s not real. It’s in the air somewhere,” he said. But he relented in 2011, when his publishing deal was renewed. His agent said, “We explained the situation to him, that a new contract wouldn’t be possible without e-book rights. He understood and gave us the right to go ahead.”
Bradbury also authored several works for film and television. He wrote the screenplay for John Huston’s 1956 film version of Moby Dick and scripts for many TV series, including Suspense, The Alfred Hitchcock Show and The Twilight Zone. Director Ridley Scott paid homage to the writer in Blade Runner, naming the hotel residence of character JF Sebastian The Bradbury!
Ray was passionate about literature. Although his writing had slowed in recent years due to a stroke, which meant he had to use a wheelchair, Bradbury remained active. He penned new novels, plays, screenplays and a volume of poetry, writing every day in the basement office of his home in Los Angeles. “The great fun in my life has been getting up every morning and rushing to the typewriter because some new idea has hit me,” he said in 2000. “The feeling I have every day is very much the same as it was when I was 12.”
Ray’s grandson, Danny Karapetian, tweeted, “The world has lost one of the best writers it’s ever known, and one of the dearest men to my heart. RIP Ray Bradbury (Ol’ Gramps).”
Bradbury wrote hundreds of novels, short stories, plays and television and film scripts in a career dating back to the 1940s. His most famous novels include Fahrenheit 451 and Something Wicked This Way Comes.
Ray was born in 1920 in Illinois and, as a teenager, moved with his family to Los Angeles. For three years, after leaving school, he earned a living selling newspapers, writing in his spare time. From the early 1940s, his short stories started to appear in magazines such as Weird Tales, Astounding Science Fiction and Captain Future. In 1947, he married Marguerite ‘Maggie’ McClure and published his first book, a collection of short stories, Dark Carnival.
Three years later, Bradbury began to establish his reputation with The Martian Chronicles. They were a collection of stories about materialistic Earthmen colonising and ruinously exploiting Mars, a commentary on the Cold War. It was turned into a memorably bizarre TV mini-series starring Rock Hudson.
Ray’s most celebrated novel, Fahrenheit 451, published in 1953, depicts a future society where books are banned and firemen start fires rather than put them out, a critique on the evils of censorship and thought control in a totalitarian state. The story, which gets its title from the temperature at which paper spontaneously ignites, proved to be uncannily prophetic. The characters are addicted to TV soap operas, while miniature headphones provide a stream of music and news. A film version starring Julie Christie, photographed by Nicolas Roeg with a music score by Hitchcock-composer Bernard Herrmann, directed by Francois Truffaut, was released in 1966.
For years, Bradbury tried to prevent the publication of Fahrenheit 451 as an e-book. He told the New York Times that electronic books “smell like burned fuel” and called the internet “a big distraction”. “It’s meaningless; it’s not real. It’s in the air somewhere,” he said. But he relented in 2011, when his publishing deal was renewed. His agent said, “We explained the situation to him, that a new contract wouldn’t be possible without e-book rights. He understood and gave us the right to go ahead.”
Bradbury also authored several works for film and television. He wrote the screenplay for John Huston’s 1956 film version of Moby Dick and scripts for many TV series, including Suspense, The Alfred Hitchcock Show and The Twilight Zone. Director Ridley Scott paid homage to the writer in Blade Runner, naming the hotel residence of character JF Sebastian The Bradbury!
Ray was passionate about literature. Although his writing had slowed in recent years due to a stroke, which meant he had to use a wheelchair, Bradbury remained active. He penned new novels, plays, screenplays and a volume of poetry, writing every day in the basement office of his home in Los Angeles. “The great fun in my life has been getting up every morning and rushing to the typewriter because some new idea has hit me,” he said in 2000. “The feeling I have every day is very much the same as it was when I was 12.”
Ray’s grandson, Danny Karapetian, tweeted, “The world has lost one of the best writers it’s ever known, and one of the dearest men to my heart. RIP Ray Bradbury (Ol’ Gramps).”
