Humanities | Always Question Authority

Ray Bradbury, author of The Martian Chroniclesand Fahrenheit 451, died Tuesday. He was 91. Bradbury was known for his futuristic tales — but he never used a computer, or even drove a car.

Bradbury was born in Waukegan, Ill., in 1920 and grew up during the Great Depression. He said it was a time when people couldn’t imagine the future, and his active imagination made him stand out. He once told Fresh Air‘s Terry Gross about exaggerating basic childhood fears, like monsters at the top of the stairs.

“As soon as I looked up, there it was, and it was horrible,” Bradbury remembers. “And I would scream and fall back down the stairs, and my mother and father would get up and sigh and say, ‘Oh, my gosh, here we go again.’ “

Bradbury dove into books as a child. Wild tales from authors Jules Verne and H.G. Wells captivated Bradbury — and made him dream of becoming a great author. So he started writing, churning out a short story every week during his teens. After his family moved to Southern California, he would escape to the basement of the UCLA library. There, he’d focus on his craft.

Read transcripts, and listen to audio here . . .

The Curious Life Of Futurist Author Ray Bradbury (npr.org)

Eric Hoffer a.k.a. “Longshoreman Philosopher” (July 25, 1902 – May 21, 1983)
American Social Writer, Author, Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom

The blindness of the fanatic is a source of strength (he sees no obstacles), but it is the cause of intellectual sterility and emotional monotony. The fanatic is also mentally cocky, and hence barren of new beginnings. At the root of his cockiness is the conviction that life and the universe conform to a simple formula – his formula. His is thus without the fruitful intervals of groping [uncertainty], when the mind is as it were in solution – ready for all manner of new reactions, new combinations and new beginnings. (Between the Devil and the Dragon. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1982, p. 287)