obitoftheday:

Obit of the Day: Ray Bradbury

There are so many fantastic pieces written about Ray Bradbury today that I thought I’d just post some fascinating facts:

• The Atlantic rejected the short story that would become Fahrenheit 451.
• Bradbury would have memorized the short stories of Edgar Allen Poe if he was living in a society as he portrayed in Fahrenheit 451. (source)
• In 1963 he took the names and numbers of three people who ridiculed his optimism of space exploration. On July 20, 1969 when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon, he called those three people. When they answered the phone he said, “Stupid son of a bitch,” and then hung up. (source)
• It cost Bradbury $9.80 to write Fahrenheit 451. (source)
• Ray Bradbury wrote the screenplay for John Huston’s Moby Dick in 1956. (source)
• He had a fear of flying and driving. (source: IMDB.com)
• His great-great-great grandmother, Mary Bradbury, was tried, and acquitted during the Salem witch trials. (source: IMDB)
• There is both a crater on the moon (Dandelion Crater) and an asteroid (9766 Bradbury) honoring the author and his work. (Source: Wikipedia)
• His gravestone will simply read, “Author of Fahrenheit 451” (source)

(Images of first editions of Bradbury’s short story collections and novels are courtesy of finebooksmagazine.com, top left; lwcurrey.com, top right and bottom left; and knoji.com, bottom right)