Thursday, June 07, 2012

Ray Bradbury, 1920-2012: A pictorial tribute

© Creative Commons

"Science fiction is the most important literature in the history of the world, because it's the history of ideas, the history of our civilization birthing itself. ...Science fiction is central to everything we've ever done, and people who make fun of science fiction writers don't know what they're talking about."

[This quote is not from the insightful interview Bradbury gave The Paris Review in 2010. You can read that interview here.]


In 1939, Ray Bradbury published Hollerbochen's Dilemma, one of his first short stories, in the magazine Imagination and launches his own magazine called Futuria Fantasia.














Dark Carnival, his first collection of short stories, was published in 1947.


The Concrete Mixer, a short story, was published in Thrilling Wonder Stories, April 1949.


The Martian Chronicles, 1950, and Fahrenheit 451, 1953. During these four years, Bradbury released The Illustrated Man, a collection of 18 short stories, in 1951, and followed it up with The Golden Apples of the Sun, an anthology of 22 short stories, in 1953.





























Bradbury's last published novel was Farewell Summer, 2006, a sequel to Dandelion Wine, 1957.




















A look at a few assorted covers and pages of magazines and comic-books that featured Ray Bradbury's short stories.























4 comments:

  1. Amazing as those covers are, they can't do justice to Bradbury's prose.

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  2. Charles, I couldn't agree more. Bradbury, Wells and Burroughs are the only three sf writers I have read. In fact, I have read only four books and a handful of short stories by Bradbury. Apart from these three I am now reading sf by other writers. I find reviewing sf rather daunting; perhaps I'll give it a try after I have read as many as writers as I can.

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  3. RIP Ray Bradbury.

    But those covers are hilarious (standard for sci-fi at the time, but still, so funny).

    One thing I respect about Bradbury is that he donated money to help prevent various public library branches near his home from closing. He was a strong supporter of having free books accessible to everyone.

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  4. HKatz, thanks for writing. I didn't know Bradbury donated money to keep public libraries up and running — a noble deed. Judging by his photographs on the internet, he seemed to have been a very likeable person and quite candid when it came to airing his views. The vintage covers are amazing, as Charles says, and funny at the same time.

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