(The title refers to the temperature at which paper ignites.) Francois Truffaut adapted the book for a well-received movie in 1966.Īs Bradbury's reputation grew, he found new outlets for his talents. An indictment of authoritarianism, it portrays a book-burning America of the near future, its central character a so-called fireman, whose job is to light the bonfires. "Fahrenheit 451" is perhaps his most successful book-length narrative. The book celebrated the romance of space travel while condemning the social abuses that modern technology had made possible. By 30 he had made his reputation with "The Martian Chronicles," a collection of thematically linked stories published in 1950.
"You rarely have such fevers later in life that fill your entire day with emotion."īradbury sold his first story to a magazine called Super Science Stories in his early 20s. "It was one frenzy after one elation after one enthusiasm after one hysteria after another," he wrote.
There he recalled his "hungry imagination" as a boy in Illinois.
The New Yorker just published an essay by him in its June 4th issue devoted to science fiction. His writing career stretched across 70 years, to the last weeks of his life. They include the short-story collections "The Martian Chronicles," "The Illustrated Man" and "The Golden Apples of the Sun," and the novels "Fahrenheit 451" and "Something Wicked This Way Comes." More than 8 million copies of his books have been sold in 36 languages. Ray Bradbury, 91, a master of science fiction and fantasy whose imaginative and lyrical evocations of the future reflected both the optimism and the anxieties of postwar America, died Tuesday night in Los Angeles.īy many estimations, Bradbury was the writer most responsible for bringing modern science fiction into the literary mainstream.Īlthough some purists complained about Bradbury's cavalier attitude toward scientific facts, literary critics praised his work.
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