Special Events in California

Here's an announcement from Bill Goodwin - illustrator, writer, and friend of Ray Bradbury:

It pleases me to announce a Very Special Event!

"MARS AND THE HEART OF HUMANITY: RAY BRADBURY'S MILLION-YEAR PICNIC" will assemble a diverse panel of thinkers to remember Ray and discuss his favorite planet, Mars, as it's been imagined in the past, as it's being discovered today and as it might eventually become. Confirmed at this time are:

GREG BEAR -- Hugo and Nebula award-winning author of over 40 books, including HULL ZERO THREE and the upcoming HALO: SILENTIUM.

HOWARD V. HENDRIX -- Science fiction novelist, scholar and editor of VISIONS OF MARS and THE MARS ENCYCLOPEDIA.

CHARLES BAKER -- Cruise, Entry, Decent and Landing Lead Mission Planner for JPL's CURIOSITY ROVER.

Panel event conceived and moderated by BILL GOODWIN.

Join us at AltCar Expo 2012, Friday & Saturday, September 28 - 29 at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. The panel begins at 4:00 PM on Saturday and the Expo is FREE. Come early see the future of renewable energy and alternative transportation! And ring in Autumn for Ray.

It sounds as if this panel is something of a follow-up to the Mars and theMind of Man symposium; this ties in with the Curiosity rover, just as the 1971 symposium tied in with Mariner 9. It sounds like an excellent panel, and I only wish I could be there. There is more information about the free 'parent' event AltCar Expo 2012 here.

Meanwhile, down in Venice, California - where Bradbury lived for many years - there is an unusual event called a type-in. Apparently, participants will be able to type on one of Ray's old typewriters. More details are here.

New Tech, Old Tech

You may have seen the recent flap about Ray Bradbury finally authorising e-book editions of his work - apparently starting with the delightfully ironic Kindle edition of Fahrenheit 451. Here's The Guardian's report.

Many of the reports focus on the theme of F451 as being the dangers of destroying books... but overlook the key lesson of F451, which is that it's the TEXT that matters, not the physical form of the book. This, after all, is why the book people memorise the texts.

While we're thinking of Bradbury moving into the modern era, it's nice to be reminded of the mechanical means he used to create most of his works: this story shows one of Bradbury's old typewriters.

And if you think Bradbury is able to conjure up amazing images at his typewriter, just see what this other creative typist can do!

At some point in his career, Bradbury switched from manual typewriters to electric ones, although he continued to use manual portables when travelling. Some of his early '60s electric typing can be seen in the "symbolism survey" that swept across the blogosphere this last week: this article in The Paris Review tells of a series of responses a sixteen-year-old high school student received in 1963 when he wrote to famous writers. Some, such as those from Kerouac and Rand, take issue with the questions or the assumptions behind the questionnaire. Others, such as Ralph Ellison and Bradbury, take a more helpful and thoughtful line.

Harlan's Typewriter - Sold!

Best-selling novelist Jamie Ford, author of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, has outed himself as the purchaser of Harlan Ellison's typewriter. You may recall that Harlan decided to do a Cormac McCarthy and put one his early-career typewriters up for auction. (If the story is new to you, read my earlier blog post on the topic. I wait here for you while you read this link.)

You can read Jamie's account of his purchase on his blog, here.

True to Type

We all know about Ray Bradbury's first typewriter. One of those toy dial devices, where you painstakingly line up a pointer with the letter you want to print. This isn't the exact model, but I believe Ray's is something like this:

He still owns the Deluxe Toy Dial machine, but probably hasn't written with it for over seventy years. Of course, Ray didn't ever do any professional work with this device, but he supposedly wrote an Edgar Rice Burroughs-inspired novel on it when still at a tender young age. In later years he progressed to more sophisticated machineries, some of them electrical.

And has even been known to Skype:


All right, he has some help when he does this, but it proves he's not quite the luddite some people would have you believe.

What of other writers? Where did they first tap out their tales?

Harlan Ellison began on something rather more professional than Bradbury: a portable Remington, bought for him by his mother when he was fifteen years old. He wrote his earliest stories on this machine, and produced his fanzine Dimensions on it up to about 1954.

Harlan is now looking to sell this historic item, and the current asking price is a sweet $40,000. In case you doubt the significance of Ellison the writer, I remind you that this man has won (deep breath):

• 8-and-a-half Hugo Awards from the World Science Fiction Convention
• 3 Nebula Awards from the Science Fiction Writers of America
• 5 Bram Stoker Awards from the Horror Writers' Association
• 2 Edgar Awards from the Mytery Writers of America
• a George Melies Award
• a Silver Pen Award for Journalism
• 4 Writers Guild of America Awards for screenwriting

He is, without doubt, one of the most significant 20th-century American writers of the literature of the fantastic. That old Remington may not be the machine upon which he wrote of the Harlequin, or Jeffty, or Vic & Blood; but it's the machine that first allowed him to unleash his astonishing literary muse.

Have a spare 40k? What a magnificent Christmas gift this would make:



Read more about Harlan and his typewriter at the official Harlan's Typewriter For Sale site.