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Kestrel
6-6-12, 1:33pm
I posted my sadness this morning on Facebook, then decided I should post here as well:


Sadness ... sadness ... one of my favorite authors of all time (second to Steinbeck), since I first read The Martian Chronicles in the mid-'50s, died last night. I loved his writing style as much as the subject matter, I think, but "science fiction" was cool too! I accidentally almost got to meet him at a bookstore in Santa Barbara about 15 years ago, but was 20 minutes late :-( ... ah well, I still have his books ... which now I will have to re-read ...

Posted by Rabbi Wolpe today: "Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you're there. It doesn't matter what you do, he said, so as long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that's like you after you take your hands away." Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451. Ray Bradbury passed away this morning at the age of 91.
Mighty Frugal
6-6-12, 1:37pm
I too was sadden this morning with the news. I know he was 91 but I loved him too! I read Martian's Chronicle when I was 13 and fell in love with him. He always seemed to be such a stand up kind of guy.

I also once read a touching adorable story about him in Readers Digest way back in the 1980s-about his childhood and a peculiar friendship he struck with a man riding on a train-which just cemented for me his good nature.
Sad Eyed Lady
6-6-12, 1:59pm
Oh, this is the first I have heard of Ray Bradbury's passing. I think my favorite was "Something Wicked This Way Comes" - pure magic.
creaker
6-6-12, 2:00pm
I can't remember the stream of books I read as an early teenager - but Fahrenheit 451, Martian Chronicles and October Country I always remember.
Mrs-M
6-6-12, 2:01pm
And I remember, Ray Bradbury Theatre.
Alan
6-6-12, 2:22pm
"The father hesitated only a moment. He felt the vague pain in his chest. If I run, he thought, what will happen? Is Death important? No. Everything that happens before Death is what counts. And we've done fine tonight. Even Death can't spoil it.” ~ Something Wicked This Way Comes
Sad Eyed Lady
6-6-12, 4:54pm
"The father hesitated only a moment. He felt the vague pain in his chest. If I run, he thought, what will happen? Is Death important? No. Everything that happens before Death is what counts. And we've done fine tonight. Even Death can't spoil it.” ~ Something Wicked This Way Comes

A book so poetically written.
Float On
6-6-12, 5:11pm
My 15 year old's idol. I doubt Weston will get word of his passing until he returns from working on the indian reservation.
Gregg
6-6-12, 7:20pm
The Martian Chronicles was the first si-fi book I really read. And oh did I read it. That book opened up a whole world for me, and not just si-fi (although I do love that). The Lord Byron poem "She Walks in Beauty" (http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16159) is quoted in the book. My then future wife fell a little more in love with me after I recited the first verse of that poem to her one moonlit night. She did not know I memorized it from a dime store, paperback novel by Ray Bradbury rather than through deep intellectual study of the great poets. Thanks Ray, I owe ya one.
rosarugosa
6-6-12, 8:12pm
I hadn't heard either, so thanks for the news. Something Wicked This Way Comes was my favorite, too.
Blackdog Lin
6-6-12, 9:22pm
He opened up my eyes, and my world, and I thank him for that.

RIP, Ray B. (And I also hadn't heard about his passing. What's up with that?)
Mighty Frugal
6-6-12, 9:34pm
The Martian Chronicles was the first si-fi book I really read. And oh did I read it. That book opened up a whole world for me, and not just si-fi (although I do love that). The Lord Byron poem "She Walks in Beauty" (http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16159) is quoted in the book. My then future wife fell a little more in love with me after I recited the first verse of that poem to her one moonlit night. She did not know I memorized it from a dime store, paperback novel by Ray Bradbury rather than through deep intellectual study of the great poets. Thanks Ray, I owe ya one.


aww your post made me smile!
rodeosweetheart
6-8-12, 10:59pm
This news made me so sad.

I used to teach his story "The Lake" to my college freshman.

It is a perfect story.
rodeosweetheart
6-8-12, 11:00pm
This news made me so sad.

I used to teach his story "The Lake" to my college freshmen.

It is a perfect story.
Kestrel
6-8-12, 11:07pm
Listened to an interview with him from 1989-ish (I think) on NPR this morning. {sigh} Can't decide which book to re-re-read "first". I've taken them from the shelf and held them to my heart many times thru the years, and the night after I heard he'd died I slept with "The Martian Chronicles" under my pillow. Maybe I'll read that one ...