Ray Bradbury, the science fiction-fantasy master who transformed his childhood dreams and Cold War fears into telepathic Martians, lovesick sea monsters, and, in uncanny detail, the high-tech, book-burning future of Fahrenheit 451, has died. He was 91. ...
His writings ranged from horror and mystery to humor and sympathetic stories about the Irish, blacks and Mexican-Americans. Bradbury also scripted John Huston's 1956 film version of Moby Dick and wrote for The Twilight Zone and other television programs, including The Ray Bradbury Theater, for which he adapted dozens of his works. ...
Bradbury broke through in 1950 with The Martian Chronicles, a series of intertwined stories that satirized capitalism, racism and superpower tensions as it portrayed Earth colonizers destroying an idyllic Martian civilization. ...
The Martian Chronicles prophesized the banning of books, especially works of fantasy, a theme Bradbury would take on fully in the 1953 release, Fahrenheit 451. Inspired by the Cold War, the rise of television and the author's passion for libraries, it was an apocalyptic narrative of nuclear war abroad and empty pleasure at home, with firefighters assigned to burn books instead of putting blazes out (451 degrees Fahrenheit, Bradbury had been told, was the temperature at which texts went up in flames). ...
More (w/photo):
http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/story/2012-06-06/ray-bradbury-dies/55417888/1
Much more all over the Web, of course -- here are just a few tributes:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/06/ray-bradbury-los-angeles-mourns-cherished-literary-icon.html
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-ray-bradbury-idol-and-friend-20120606,0,7706563.story
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-obama-issues-statement-on-ray-bradburys-death-20120606,0,1846140.story
Blog, a searchable database of obituaries
back to 2001:
http://DeadCelebrityAlert.com
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