From May 2001 to January 2010, professor of creative writing, fiction author, and biographer Sam Weller interviewed one of America’s greatest and most original talents, Ray Bradbury. Not every moment of every day, of course, but over countless hours, nonetheless, throughout the decade. As Mr. Bradbury himself admitted not long before his death, “Sam Weller [...]
Shortly after he published The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury met one of his great heroes, Aldous Huxley. The author of Brave New World had not only read the younger man’s book, he had found it profound. “You know what you are, young man,” Huxley asked. When the 30-year-old Bradbury admitted he did not, Huxley replied: [...]
Only a week or so before Henry Regnery published Russell Kirk’s first masterpiece, The Conservative Mind, Mr. Ray Bradbury, science fiction novelist, screenplay writer, and all-around wit, wrote and published a fascinating and insightful article, “The Day After Tomorrow.” Whether or not my ideas on censorship via the fire department will be old hat by [...]
On numerous occasions, Mortimer Adler wrote about the criteria that were used to determine which books of all the books written in the West would be placed within The Great Books of the Western World. Contrary to confusion and many misstatements I've read over the years, Adler says it was essentially three criteria and they [...]
On all lists of the best science fiction and fantasy writers of the twentieth century, Ray Bradbury is always present, and usually at the top. However, popular acclaim does not always translate into high literary craft. The discerning reader should carefully look at the full body of Bradbury’s writings to determine if all, or even [...]
Set in the city on an early November evening in the year 2053 at 8:00 pm, The Pedestrian is a powerful fable about the glories of walking as a human activity, but the perils of walking in an age that no longer walks, sees, listens, or thinks. Walking “was what Mr. Leonard Mead most dearly [...]
On numerous occasions, Mortimer Adler wrote about the criteria that was used to determine which books of all the books written in the West would be placed within The Great Books of the Western World. Contrary to confusion and many misstatements I’ve read over the years, Adler says it was essentially three criteria and they [...]
I begin my lectures and presentations about Ray Bradbury with a confession. The confession is simple and one of which I express a deep sense of loss and a degree of shame. I did not start reading Ray Bradbury until a few years ago. I did not read him because I judged a book by [...]
To commence as a writer for the pulp-magazines is no advantage; nor is writing film scripts in Hollywood, decade after decade, generally to be recommended for those who would be men of letters. Such was Ray Bradbury’s background. He had the advantage, however, of never attending college—which salutary neglect preserved him from many winds of [...]
Tomorrow would be Christmas, and even while the three of them rode to the rocket port the mother and father were worried. It was the boy’s first flight into space, his very first time in a rocket, and they wanted everything to be perfect. So when, at the customs table, they were forced to leave [...]