Bradbury 100 - episode 6

Today's new episode of Bradbury 100 features the second part of my interview with Jonathan R. Eller - Bradbury biographer, the director of the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies, and author of the new book Bradbury Beyond Apollo. We also spend some time discussing Jon's first book on Bradbury, which was the study Ray Bradbury: The Life of Fiction co-authored with William F. Touponce, and then move on to Jon's recollections of the first Bradbury he read, and his "desert island" Bradbury pick.

Because a part of Jon's new book deals with Ray's relationship to real-life space exploration, I introduce the episode with a discussion of Ray, space, and Apollo.

Jon also talks about the challenges faced by the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies, which reminds me that to sustain their good work they need support. You can read about the Center's mission, and make donations, here.

Bradbury 100 · Bradbury 100 - Episode 06 - another one with biographer Jon Eller

Show Notes

Read Ray's 1960s space-related articles in Life magazine:

• "A Serious Search for Weird Worlds" (scroll to page 116 for article)
• "Cry the Cosmos" (scroll to page 86)
• "An Impatient Gulliver Above Our Roofs" (scroll to page 31)

Jon Eller's author page on Amazon US: 

Jon Eller's author page on Amazon UK:

Ray Bradbury visiting JPL, where he gained his Mars driving license:

Ray was in at the start of the Planetary Society.

Photo of Ray's license by John King Tarpinian. Background detail from the first edition of The Martian Chronicles. Composite image by Phil Nichols.

Orbiting Bradbury's Mars

Coming soon, Orbiting Ray Bradbury's Mars, edited by Gloria McMillan. The blurb for this essay collection says:

Noting the impact of the Southwest on Bradbury, some of the essays analyze Bradbury’s southwest metaphors: colonial pollution of a pristine ecology, the impacts of a colonial invasion upon an indigenous population, the meeting of cultures with different values and physical aspects. Other essays view Bradbury via the lens of post-colonialism, drawing parallels between such works as The Martian Chronicles and real-life colonialism and its effects. Others view Bradbury sociologically, analyzing border issues in his 1947 New Yorker story "I See You Never," written long before the issue of Mexican deportees appeared on the American literary horizon. From the scientific side, four essays by astronomers document how Bradbury formed the minds of many budding scientists with his vision.

The book is due for release towards the end of the 2013, but is available for pre-order now from the website of the publisher, McFarland. McFarland previously published Visions of Mars, to which I contributed an essay on Bradbury's Mars.