RIP Ray Bradbury, 1920 – 2012

The revered science fiction, horror and mystery writer Ray Bradbury has died aged 91. He was best known for Fahrenheit 451, his blockbuster of 1953. He became known as a curmudgeon, and was something of a Luddite. He was a virulent opponent of the internet, which he viewed as a transient nonsense, doomed to fail. He refused to allow his books to be sold in digital editions, a stance which was curtailed last year when his publishers made it a condition of his contract.

His recalcitrance was perhaps borne of his love of the printed book and of old fashioned libraries. He maintained that libraries were one of the few places that children and adults could ‘meet people’ (in the pages of books). But there was also a clear political dimension to his position, as revealed in the film above. He says (2.38 mins):

‘We should learn from history about the destruction of books.