Ray Bradbury has died today in LA (aged 91) – he was an American fantasy, science fiction, and mystery writer who will be best remembered for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451, as well as the series of SF stories collected as The Martian Chronicles, and his novel The Illustrated Man.

Bradbury’s own favourite author was Edgar Rice Burroughs. Ray loved Burroughs' The Warlord of Mars so much that at the age of twelve he wrote his own sequel. Ray Bradbury began his SF authoring career in writing when, owing to his bad eyesight, he was rejected from entry into the military during World War II.



Having been inspired by science fiction heroes like Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers, Bradbury began to publish science fiction stories in fanzines in 1938. Bradbury was invited by Forrest J Ackerman to attend the Los Angeles Science Fiction Society. This was where he met the writers Robert A. Heinlein, Henry Kuttner, Leigh Brackett, and Jack Williamson.

His first published story was Hollerbochen's Dilemma, which appeared in the fanzine Imagination! In 1969, The Illustrated Man was brought to the big screen, starring Rod Steiger, Claire Bloom and Robert Drivas. The Martian Chronicles became a three-part TV miniseries starring Rock Hudson which was first broadcast by NBC in 1980. Bradbury noted that he found the miniseries "just boring".

His last novel was Farewell Summer in 2006.

Bradbury is to be buried at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery at a date yet to be set, with a headstone to read Author of Fahrenheit 451. His wife, Marguerite, sadly passed away in 2003, but he is survived by his four children.

More over at the BBC.