Sci-fi legend Ray Bradbury dies

**blaggard** · 6th June 2012

1997: Bradbury's humble love of books

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

NEW: "I started writing every day. I never stopped," Bradbury once said
The writer "died peacefully ... in Los Angeles, after a lengthy illness," his publisher says
Bradbury "inspired generations of readers to dream, think, and create," HarperCollins says
His stories predicted ATMs and live car chase broadcasts

Los Angeles (CNN) -- Science fiction author Ray Bradbury, whose imagination yielded classic books such as "Fahrenheit 451," "The Martian Chronicles" and "Something Wicked This Way Comes," has died at 91, his publisher said Wednesday.
Bradbury "died peacefully, last night, in Los Angeles, after a lengthy illness," HarperCollins said in a written statement.
Bradbury's books and 600 short stories predicted a variety of things, including the emergence of ATMs and live broadcasts of fugitive car chases.
Sci-fi legend Ray Bradbury on God, 'monsters and angels'
"In a career spanning more than seventy years, Ray Bradbury has inspired generations of readers to dream, think, and create," the statement said. "A prolific author of hundreds of short stories and close to fifty books, as well as numerous poems, essays, operas, plays, teleplays, and screenplays, Bradbury was one of the most celebrated writers of our time."
Bradbury wrote the screenplay for John Huston's classic film adaptation of "Moby Dick." He adapted 65 of his stories for television's The Ray Bradbury Theater, and won an Emmy for his teleplay of "The Halloween Tree."
"In my later years I have looked in the mirror each day and found a happy person staring back." he wrote in a book of essays published in 2005. "Occasionally I wonder why I can be so happy. The answer is that every day of my life I've worked only for myself and for the joy that comes from writing and creating. The image in my mirror is not optimistic, but the result of optimal behavior."
Bradbury received the 2000 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, the 2004 National Medal of Arts, and a 2007 Pulitzer Prize Special Citation.
Bradbury lived in Los Angeles since his family moved there from his native Waukegan, Illinois, to look for work during the Great Depression.
He is survived by his four daughters, Susan Nixon, Ramona Ostergren, Bettina Karapetian, and Alexandra Bradbury, and eight grandchildren. His wife of 57 years, Marguerite, died in 2003.
The biography released by his publisher quoted a story in which Bradbury recounted meeting a carnival magician, Mr. Electrico, in 1932. Electrico touched the 12-year-old Bradbury with his sword, and commanded, "Live forever!"
"I decided that was the greatest idea I had ever heard," Bradbury said. "I started writing every day. I never stopped."

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/06/06/sh...bit/index.html