Sadly, on June 5, 2012 we lost one our greatest artists and visionaries, Ray Bradbury. Bradbury defies genre categorization writing everything from science fiction in the Martian Chronicles, to dystopian fantasy in Fahrenheit 451, to creepy horror in Something Wicked This Way Comes and October Country. A simple Google search on Bradbury’s name will quickly show what an impact he had on the lives of many including Neil Gaiman and Margaret Atwood.
Mr. Bradbury was a staunch advocate for libraries having typed out the first draft of Fahrenheit 451 in the library at UCLA. He believed that books were not just ideas, but the authors themselves, and mirrors to those who read them. His fear expressed in Fahrenheit was that if people lose books we will lose ourselves. You can watch a reading of his poem “If Only We Had Taller Been” before the launch of the Marnier 9 here and see a wonderful interview with the author here, speaking about his life, his inspiration, and “loving what you do and doing what you love”. You will be missed, sir. Thank you for the legacy- and the mirrors- you have left behind.