Ray Bradbury, 91, died this morning in Los Angeles. He received a long overdue national medal of arts from President Bush, a special Pulitzer citation, and National Book Foundation recognition only a few years ago.
Ray Bradbury, 91, died this morning in Los Angeles. He received a long overdue national medal of arts from President Bush, a special Pulitzer citation, and National Book Foundation recognition only a few years ago.
R.I.P. An interesting thing about Bradbury was that he didn’t write like people talk, but his words were great to read. This was discovered when he tried to write for Hollywood. The dialogue he wrote just didn’t work. Because it was meant to be read.
Or so I’ve read. I’m fond of the film version of “Moby Dick” that he wrote, but it didn’t do well at the box office.
Bradbury was my favorite living writer; his books and stories made me want to become a writer myself. I had the great privilege to meet him once at a play in Pasadena. He signed my copy of The Martian Chronicles. A few years later, I became friends with the guy who drives the Mars rovers (also a major Bradbury fan). He told me about a time when Bradbury had visited Jet Propulsion Labs, and know that the author did not drive cars, the rover driver decided to show Bradbury how to drive the Mars rover via computer simulator.
Bradbury will be much missed. No-one wrote quite like he did.