Happy Birthday, Ray Bradbury

books, science fiction, science fiction, writing 1 Minute

Born this day in 1920, left us (probably for Mars) June 5, 2012.

Ray_Bradbury_(1975)_-cropped- Some of you who follow me on Twitter may have seen my tweet the other day about a lengthy dream I had in which I was talking with a young Ray. I can’t really recall what we discussed, mostly I just remember the feeling that we were great friends and thoroughly enjoying eachother’s company (ok, it was a dream, all right?). We talked and laughed, he was smiling the whole time. He seemed very excited and full of life. In the dream he was blond, I don’t know if he was in real life (his mother was Swedish so maybe).

I’d like to think it was a visit from him. If so, he was in great spirits (pun intended) and very happy where he was. Much joy. All I have to do is recall that dream and I can feel that happiness again.

So in honor of the big guy’s day, I bagged this lot at Powells on Sunday :::toots party horn::: I think “The Martian Chronicles” may have been the first science fiction novel I ever read. Of course I was nine at the time so I don’t really remember it that well (hence the new copy) but I do remember loving it anyway.

Bradbury books

Happy Birthday, Ray. Thanks for all the wonderful stories and the visit. Come back any time.

Ray-Bradbury-inspirational-quotes

Published by D. D. Syrdal

Writer of vampire stories and science fiction. First novel, "Revenants Abroad", available now at Amazon. If you like a vampire you can go out drinking with and still respect yourself in the morning, I think you'd like Andrej.

Published

6 thoughts on “Happy Birthday, Ray Bradbury”

  1. Ah, I fell in love with him when I was quite young, a teenager in fact, and found a copy of a book I believe was called Golden Apples Of The Sun (I think it was later re-collected, maybe re-named). Beautiful, beautiful stuff! I gobbled down Martian Chronicles, the Illustrated Man (a lovely, creepy device), Fahrenheit 451… Everything I could lay hands on. He wrote important literature that seemed almost humbly readable. So enjoyable; such an influence.

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  2. Hi Susan – It’s very possible it’s been reorganized as a new collection, there were several at Powells but I had to put the brakes on a little bit 😉

    And you know, I haven’t been reading a lot of science fiction lately. I’m not really sure what the issues or topics are that writers are taking up these days? I guess there’s a lot of dystopia and government conspiracy, but Ray and that generation of writers I think were more fanciful. Or maybe I’ve just missed them?

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  3. One hell of an amazing writer. And certainly one of the Masters that I try to emulate when I write Sci-Fi. His stories transcended just science fiction though. It would have been great to know him.

    Something Wicked was a favorite of mine!

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