Today Ray Bradbury is 85 years young. Ray is one of my all-time favorite authors and probably the first sci fi/fantasy author I ever read. (Blame my brother for giving me a copy of The Illustrated Man when I was about 12.) His stories are creative, insightful, and deceptively simple; when you re-read them you'll find a meaning you didn't see the first time.
I associate his stories with autumn (probably because of The October Country, Something Wicked This Way Comes, and The Halloween Tree) so I like re-reading them at the height of Michigan's hot, humid summer as reminder that cool, crisp weather will come again. When it does, of course, I can't resist visiting my old friend by re-reading his books. The magic and the wonder are still there for me, even after all these years in The Martian Chronicles, R is for Rocket, The Golden Apples of the Sun, and others too numerous to name.
Ray, thank you, thank you, thank you for your magic and inspiration. May you have many more happy birthdays and write many more books. In the meantime, I'll see you in The October Country!
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
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Thanks for the notice of Bradbury's birthday! I just read an old one of his, "Come into My Cellar" last week, in an anthology "17 x Infinity".
Also saw Bradbury interviewed in an documentary called "Tales from the Crypt: From Comics to Television". If you don't know, some of Bradbury's stories were adapted into comic book form back in the early 50s, by EC Comics. EC's only remaining title these days is MAD.
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