Thaindian News

Washington, June 7 (IANS) America’s science fiction pioneer Ray Bradbury, whose works included “Fahrenheit 451″ and ” The Martian Chronicles,” passed away Tuesday night. He was 91.

A prolific author of hundreds of short stories and close to 50 books, as well as numerous poems, essays, operas, plays, and screenplays, Bradbury was one of the most celebrated writers in the US.

“Mr. Bradbury died peacefully, last night, in Los Angeles, after a long illness,” Xinhua quoted a spokesman for his publisher HarperCollins as saying Wednesday.

Bradbury’s groundbreaking works include Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, Dandelion Wine, and Something Wicked This Way Comes.

He wrote the screen play for John Huston’s classic film adaptation of Moby Dick, and was nominated for an Academy Award. He adapted 65 of his stories for television’s The Ray Bradbury Theater, and won an Emmy for his teleplay of The Halloween Tree.

The author was awarded the 2000 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, the 2004 National Medal of Arts and the 2007 Pulitzer Prize Special Citation. He won an Emmy Award for his teleplay adaptation of his 1972 novel, “The Halloween Tree.”

In a statement issued Wednesday, US President Barack Obama paid tribute to the memory of Bradbury.

Citing Bradbury’s “gift for storytelling” that “reshaped our culture and expanded our world,” Obama praised the author for understanding “that our imaginations could be used as a tool for better understanding, a vehicle for change and an expression of our most cherished values.”

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