I just stumbled across this at Millard Fillmore's Bathtub (a blog I still don't quite understand thematically): a segment from the old Groucho Marx quiz show featuring a very young, and very tall, Ray Bradbury.
This is apparently from 1955, and Ray is rattling off all of his most famous books as already being written. I would have thought they came a bit later - in the late 50's to mid 60's. Obviously my mental chronology of his career is wrong. I also had no idea he was such a strong looking bloke. My image of him is as being grey haired with thick glasses, and not physically imposing at all.
Science fiction in the 1950s was an exciting place to be -- much better than just about any other time, it seems to me. The best writers were relative unknowns, and got to hob-nob with Groucho.
ReplyDeleteTheme at Millard Fillmore's Bathtub? Good question.
History and accuracy, good science, politics, corn and a little salt.
"Eclectic" is overused as a theme.
Let me know if you ever figure out the them of Millard Fillmore's Bathtub so I can put into one short sentence.
History, the world and the universe, are sorta like that.
Thanks for coming by.
http://timpanogos.wordpress.com/this-bathtub-this-blog/
Hi Ed.
ReplyDeleteYes, I think Heinlein was writing his "juveniles" during the 1950's, and I am inclined to think they are perhaps his best work.
But there has been nothing to compare to the literary grace and quality of Bradbury in his best books and short stories.