Ray Bradbury is everywhere

July 2, 2009 7:14 AM PT

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

What do you plan to do for your 89th birthday? Ray Bradbury, who will leave 88 behind later this summer, plans to head to the library.

He’s having a birthday celebration at the Memorial Branch Library on West Olympic in Los Angeles on Monday, Aug. 31 at 6:30 pm. The event is free, but to support the library, Bradbury’s books will be for sale. He’ll be happy to sign those that are purchased at the event.

And he’s also pitching in to help the Venice Historical Society restore the columns along Windward Avenue. The Ray Bradbury Adopt-a-Colonnade project kicks off July 31 with desserts, Champagne and an appearance by the author himself. Tickets are $55 and $45, and the organization is hoping to raise some serious cash: a $2,500 Martian Chronicle sponsor gets a name on a plaque on a restored column; a $250 Farenheight 451 sponsor will see their name on a rock wall; and for less, you can become a Graveyard of Lunatics sponsor (naming convention still to be determined).

What with these events and his recent conversations with the Ventura County Reporter and the New York Times, you might think he’d be tired out. But since his actual birthday is on August 22, I’m convinced another birthday-slash-fun-slash-fundraising event invitation will be arriving any day now.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Jacket Copy

Carolyn Kellogg

Carolyn Kellogg is a prize-winning writer who served as Books editor of the Los Angeles Times for three years. She joined the L.A. Times in 2010 as staff writer in Books and left in 2018. In 2019, she was a judge of the National Book Award in Nonfiction. Prior to coming to The Times, Kellogg was editor of LAist.com and the web editor of the public radio show Marketplace. She has an MFA in creative writing from the University of Pittsburgh and a BA in English from the University of Southern California.