Science Fiction Author Ray Bradbury Dies

By Nancy Atkinson - June 6, 2012 at 3:09 PM UTC | Site News
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Author Ray Bradbury — who sent generations of readers on travels to fantastic future worlds -- has died this morning in Los Angeles, at the age of 91. Author of more than 27 novels and story collections, such as his famous "The Martian Chronicles," the enduring "Fahrenheit 451," "Dandelion Wine" and "Something Wicked This Way Comes,"and more than 600 short stories, the influential Bradbury has been credited with bringing a bit of class to science fiction, helping to move the sometimes maligned genre into the real literature.

In a podcast on the

365 Days of Astronomy

, Bradbury said that he wanted to be buried on Mars.

"I don't want to be the first live person to arrive there," he said. "It'll be too late. But I want to be the first dead person that gets there. I want to arrive in a Campbell's soup can. Bury me on Mars in thing called the Bradbury Abyss. They gotta name a place on Mars for me, and I will welcome that."

Bradbury definitely needs to have a place on Mars named after him.

Bradbury wrote this advice in "Fahrenheit 451": "Stuff your eyes with wonder, live as if you'd drop dead in 10 seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream."

Ray Douglas Bradbury was born Aug. 22, 1920, in Waukegan, Illinois and used the ambiance of small time life to enhance his fiction.

"When I was born in 1920," he told the New York Times Magazine in 2000, "the auto was only 20 years old. Radio didn't exist. TV didn't exist. I was born at just the right time to write about all of these things."

Bradbury will be missed.

The sad news came

via i09.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com