Ray Bradbury, the American author of Fahrenheit 451 and Something Wicked This Way Comes, died today. He was 91 years old.

Bradbury was born in Waukegan, Illinois, in 1920, and he spent part of his teen years in Los Angeles, where he graduated high school. He got a start in publishing as a newspaper hawker, and in 1943 he became a full-time writer. Bradbury’s first published works consisted of short stories, a form he would master over the course of his career. The prolific writer also wrote novels, essays, plays, teleplays, and poetry.

Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles was his first big break in science fiction publishing. The series of short stories told tales of Earth’s inhabitants colonizing the planet Mars, and Bradbury collected them into a single work. He also sold The Illustrated Man at the same time as The Martian Chronicles; both works brought him commercial success. In 1953, Bradbury published Fahrenheit 451. The book’s vision of a totalitarian state that burns books proved to be a provocative ideological work that evoked strong memories of Nazi Germany during World War II and pitted a strong ideology of freedom of ideas against totalitarian regimes.

Bradbury published more than 500 stories, and many of his works, including Fahrenheit 451, became part of school curriculums in many American schools. As an expert writer of short stories, Bradbury received several major awards, such as the O. Henry Memorial Award, the Benjamin Franklin Award, the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement, and many others. His animated film Icarus Montgolfier was nominated for an Academy Award in 1962. Dandelion Wine, Something Wicked this Way Comes, and Driving Blind also stand out among some of his best-known works.

Bradbury explored the conventions of science fiction and fantasy through his use of lyrical imagery and poetic language. He often worked in the medium of television to tell his stories, adapting many of his own stories for the screen himself. Shows like The Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents brought many of his works to life in the second half of the 20th century.

John Scalzi, author of Redshirts and Old Man’s War, and the president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, talked to Ars today to reflect on Bradbury’s death. “Ray Bradbury was foundational, what the genre was built upon," said Scalzi. "He was up there with Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke. He was one of the pillars of the genre. This is the end of an era.”

Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Blind Assassin, told Ars, "So sad to hear of Ray Bradbury's death. He was formative for so many and a lovely man. He was part of the model for the character Alex in The Blind Assassin."

Bradbury is survived by his four daughters and several grandchildren. His wife Maggie died in 2003.

Bradbury put a trademark charm into his personal appearances throughout his life. In this 2001 appearance, “An Evening with Ray Bradbury,” he explains how he got his start in writing, and how much he loved the act of writing.

The Ars OpenForum has already been discussing Bradbury’s death in the thread “RIP Ray Bradbury.” user Hound of Cullen reflects on his death, saying, "The world is a little less shiny without him in it.”

Bradbury’s prolific literary output, and his interest in stories about the quest for personal and ideological freedoms, resounded with many readers of multiple generations. In 2000, he was quoted at his birthday party as saying, “The great fun in my life has been getting up every morning and rushing to the typewriter because some new idea has hit me. The feeling I have every day is very much the same as it was when I was twelve. In any event, here I am, eighty years old, feeling no different, full of a great sense of joy, and glad for the long life that has been allowed me. I have good plans for the next ten or twenty years, and I hope you'll come along."