Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Ray Bradbury: 1920-2012

Ray Bradbury was, without question or supposition, one of my favorite authors.

His The Illustrated Man changed me, in that this is the first book I read, put down, thought of, remembered, recollected, and picked up again and again to read. "The Veldt", in particular...I could smell those smells, feel the humidity of the air and prickle at the arid wind on the land. Finally, I smelled the copper-penny smell of blood. It amazes me even now, years later, that the story is still so much with me.

That is master storytelling.

Bringing science fiction to the general public was quite a feat, and introduced unsuspecting readers like me to a wider range of authors such as Arthur C. Clark, Philip H. Dick and H. G. Wells.

My pick for a Pennsylvania book club one month was Bradbury's Dandelion Wine. I didn't know at the the time that it was semi-autobiographical and was pleasantly surprised that the story was not at all like the others of his I had read. I loved the book. The rest of the club hated it. ha!

Fond memories of this author.

No comments:

Post a Comment