The Science Fiction Author of such literary classics as Fahrenheit 451 and Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury, has died in Los Angeles at the age of 91.
Bradbury suffered a stroke in his later years that left him confined to a wheelchair. He still wrote, however, turning out plays, novels and a volume of poetry, and attending library fundraisers and literary events around Los Angeles.
His breakthrough work was The Martian Chronicles, which satirized capitalism and Cold War polotics, portraying humans as the aggressors in an invasion of Mars. The stories have been published in over 30 languages and was made into a TV mini-series. According to Bradbury, it was his one and only science fiction novel. The rest he classified as fantasy.
It was in this novel that he first explored the ideas of banning books that he would later expound upon in his best known work, Fahrenheit 451.
Not only a Sci-Fi author, Bradbury was a true visionary, predicting iPods, earbuds, flat screen TV, interactive TV, school violence, the demise of print media, electronic surveillance, and Live sensationalistic television events. He even predicted the invention of the electronic book, a concept not explored by his contemporaries.
Ray Bradbury’s grandson, Danny Karapetian, spoke with io9 about his grandfathers passing and the continuing influence he has on those that loved his work:
If I had to make any statement, it would be how much I love and miss him, and I look forward to hearing everyone’s memories about him. He influenced so many artists, writers, teachers, scientists, and it’s always really touching and comforting to hear their stories. Your stories. His legacy lives on in his monumental body of books, film, television and theater, but more importantly, in the minds and hearts of anyone who read him, because to read him was to know him. He was the biggest kid I know…
He shares his favorite line from Bradbury about death:
“My tunes and numbers are here. They have filled my years, the years when I refused to die. And in order to do that I wrote, I wrote, I wrote, at noon or 3:00 A.M.
So as not to be dead.”
This video contains some of the best words spoken by the man. Watch and learn:
