The UW-Parkside library has received a grant for materials and activities surrounding the Big Read (neabigread.org/). This year, the book will be Fahrenheit 451. As part of our preparations, I am reading and scanning some letters written by Ray Bradbury from the late 1940s through the 60s. When I say that, I mean I am actually, physically handling letters that were typed up by Ray Bradbury on his typewriter and hand-signed, some even with a little doodle on them. These letters are in the holdings of the Wisconsin State Historical Society as part of the August William Derleth Papers, a collection of materials and correspondence related both to his career as a writer, and to his work as one of the editors of Arkham House, a publishing house dedicated to publishing Weird Fiction and named for H.P. Lovecrafts stories. (There is a lot of stuff here that might be of interest to fen; interested readers take note!) As someone who has sort of mystical feelings about Bradbury and his works, this is pretty great. Its so strange to see Bradbury, one of the best known science-fiction authors in the world, saying that, next to the much more accomplished (at the time) Derleth, he feels like a small rather squamous sunflower in an empty lot. Theres one letter where Bradbury goes on at length about how wonderful the Buck Rogers cartoon was until a new artist brought it downhill, and how hard hes trying to find all the backissues of newspapers so he can get all the golden age Buck Rogers sundays in color. Our brightest literary lights are fanboys themselves. I think the one that struck me most strongly was a comment to Derleth that, as writers, theyve been around sci-fi for so long that they sometimes forget that, someday man WILL fly into space. To think of Bradbury writing these wonderful visionary stories prior to manned spaceflight being a reality.
Posted on: Thu, 31 Jul 2014 18:47:34 +0000
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