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Friday, June 8, 2012

Ray Bradbury - Rest In Peace


Ray Bradbury passed away on Tuesday, June 5th, this week. He was the last of what some would call the big three US writers of Science Fiction - Asimov, Bradbury, and Heinlein. The photo above was taken at the park named in his honor by Waukegan, Illinois, his birthplace.

Eventually he and family settled in Los Angeles. Remarkably, especially given California's car culture, he never drove a car, but was a familiar sight pedaling his bicycle to and from bookstores. As a teenager, I read all of his early books and still remember details of some of the stories. I recently read "The Illustrated Man" again and felt that it had stood the test of time quite well.

   
  

Above and below are the jacket covers of four of his most famous, and very collectible, titles (from top to bottom 1947, 1950, 1951, and 1953)


 

Bradbury's first book (top above) was published by Arkham House in 1947 in a printing of about 3000 copies. August Derleth's small press was (still is) located in Sauk City, Wisconsin, northwest of Madison.

In an ironic twist of fate, Bradbury was presented the National Medal of Arts (2004) by one of our most non-literary presidents - ceremony shown below. Kurt Vonnegut would say: "So it goes."

 



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