A note to all...

If you get a chance to meet Sam while he is out touring for The Bradbury Chronicles, I most definitely recommend that you do so. My wife and I went to the signing on Skokie today and have a fanatastic time. The stories that Sam has to tell alone were worth the trip, but on top of that, it was really great to see such a fan of Ray. You can tell what a deep appreciation that Sam has for his subject. He puts such heart into his narratives of Ray, that even if you did not love Ray before, you would now.

The only bad part was when I realized how jealous I was of Sam getting to dig through Ray's papers and such, looking for buried treasures. Just kidding! No hard feelings towards Sam's wonderful fortune to be able to spend so much time with a living legend.

So, don't miss you chance to hear some great tales about a great man, told by a true Bradbury devotee!!!


Brad.

Say, I know how you feel. In fact I spoke to Ray just this morning and he said that he would be speaking with Sam later today.

I told Ray how much I am enjoying reading Sam's book and he was happy about that and said that he would pass that onto Sam.

Well then I received an email from Sam himself saying that he might in my area (South Florida) sometime in June for a book signing. So I do hope to meet him then. I have talked to him on the phone and he sounded like a real personable guy.

Congrats to you and your wife for being able to attend the Skokie signing.

I spoke with Sam this morning as well! He mentioned the review that ran in today's Seattle Times. I've cut and pasted it below.

"The Bradbury Chronicles": Bradbury is profiled meticulously in new biography
Full story: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/books/2002234281_bradbury10.html

By Nisi Shawl
Special to The Seattle Times



"The Bradbury Chronicles: The Life of Ray Bradbury, Predicting the Past, Remembering the Future"
by Sam Weller
Morrow, 400 pp., $26.95

If Ray Bradbury had had his way, this biography would still be unwritten.

Not that "The Bradbury Chronicles" is some unauthorized, Kitty-Kelley-esque scandal-fest. Author Sam Weller was given full access to Bradbury, his family, his documents and his collections of "stuff." And Weller uses the most diplomatic language possible when touching on sensitive subjects such as Bradbury's marital infidelity.

But when Weller approached him with the proposal for this first "full-fledged" biography (as opposed to previous books that focused primarily on his work) Bradbury turned him down. This iconic figure, for decades one of the giants of speculative fiction, a man as well-known outside the genre as within it, who has produced more than 500 stories, novels, plays, essays and poems, thought Weller's project premature. "I have too much life left to live," the octogenarian said.

Fortunately for us, Weller prevailed. Even more fortunately, he does the rich material of Bradbury's life thus far meticulous justice. Delving into the roots of the Waukegan, Ill., boyhood that inspired such mundane-yet-eerie tales as "Something Wicked This Way Comes," Weller gives us the family's history going back for three generations. He also details the early poverty and rootlessness that paradoxically led to Bradbury's idealization of the Midwest, a region he left for good at the age of 13.

Personal lore abounds as well: Bradbury's favorite food? Ice cream. His earliest memory? Being born -- a mental feat Weller acknowledges is impossible as far as medical science is concerned, then reports exactly as his subject told it.

Not content with merely gathering and reciting facts, Weller creates a vivid portrait of a basically shy man who has shamelessly promoted himself -- or rather, who has shamelessly promoted his art. What drove him to do this? Perhaps the key lies in a childhood encounter with carnival star Mr. Electrico, who knighted Bradbury with an electrically charged sword and ordered him to "Live forever!"

Seeking literary immortality through his work, Bradbury's has certainly been helped along in his quest by Weller's accurate, interesting and very timely biography.