Ray Bradbury (placeholder)

Farenheit 451 was the first sci-book I ever read…it turn me own to the genre.

Ray Bradbury’s stories have stayed in my mind for years. I love the diversity of his writing. “The Illustrated Man” is one of my favorite books.

I met Ray when he came to speak at my university (Wittenberg) in Ohio in 1993-4 (somewhere in there). I had the very great pleasure and honour to sit with him and 4 other students for 2-3 hours before he was to give his speech and just chat. We were given full access to him to ask anything and we did. He enchanted us with his stories and experiences. His speech afterwards was great as well.

I got to see him at the Westwood Library a couple of weeks ago. A-mazing! He wore his dinosaur necktie and talked about all the passions in his life. It made me want to cry…Such an inspiring, positive person—exactly like you’d want him to be. I wanted to tell him that my favorite story to teach and to read is “Dark They Were and GOlden-EYed” but I was too shy. He signed the two books I bought, though:)

At the San Diego Comic-Con my wife and I sat at the DC Comics area to rest. About 8 feet in front of us were placed two chairs and two men sat down in them, facing away from us. People kept coming up to these men and sort of making a fuss over them, awed. I kept saying, “I don’t know who those men are but they must be famous because I feel like even the backs of their heads seem familiar somehow.” I went around and looked and it was Ray Bradbury and DC editor Julius Schwartz. I don’t remember my level of interaction with Mr. Schwartz, but I know I shook Ray Bradbury’s hand and told him how much I loved his work, how Death is a Lonely Business was my favorite… he was just like you’d think he would be.

I met him at a play he wrote called “Drunk and in charge of a bicycle”. It was cute; based in Ireland. I have a picture somewhere and will post it if I can ever find it.

He has got to be one of the better writers of the second half of the twentieth century. I personally like “The Sound of Thunder” more than anything else he has done. I’m sort of a time travel nut.

He wrote 2 of the most beautiful books I’ve ever read:
Chronicles of Mars
Fahreneheit 451

I met Bradbury in college. A friend of his donated a large collection of Bradbury’s writings to the university I was attending and Bradbury came to speak. The bookstore was cleaned out of his books, so I took my old dogeared paperback of “Dandelion Wine” (my favorite of all of his books), showed up early to be the first in line, sat in the front row on the aisle and got to be one of the first people to get his autograph. My roommate was a photographer for the school paper and he got a picture of me with Bradbury. I still have the book and the photo 25 years later.