In Memoriam: Ray Bradbury 1920-2012

Through the years, Ray Bradbury attended several major space mission events at JPL/Caltech.
On Nov. 12, 1971, on the eve of Mariner 9 going into orbit at Mars, Bradbury took part in a symposium at Caltech with Arthur C. Clarke, journalist Walter Sullivan, and scientists Carl Sagan and Bruce Murray. In this excerpt, Bradbury reads his poem, "If Only We Had Taller Been."

[@TheStockwell]

He passed away during an astronomical event, a transit of Venus; with everyone looking towards space. I met Mr. Bradbury years ago at a book signing. Like him, I had never learned to drive a car. That's what we talked about. He spoke of his youth, of friends who never became adults because they'd died in automobile accidents. He was quite sincere and made me promise to never learn to drive. I still haven't. He was probably the most decent, wonderful person I ever met. The writing will endure.

[@twjclarke1]

So, so, so beautiful. This gets me every single time.

[@DarkDragonPath]

No Mr Bradbury, you sir are tall. Thank you for all that you've given us.

[@seansant]

Simply magnificent . That is so inspirational. Much , much more than any politician or celebrity speech ever was spoken.

[@san2chi]

His poetry has in it all the thrill of new wonder. Ah, the chills.

[@willh5667]

i had super chills, this was amzing

[@willh5667]

can i cry for you... someone put opnions in my eyes

[@revenge1745]

Yes the chills your so right.

[@romagnolisofiavictoria5079]

please add subtitles to this. is such a shame that there is people who can't understand this and they miss one of the most beautiful poems of this man

[@michaelmke]

genius.com/4067687 Here's the poem if you wanted to read it.

[@romagnolisofiavictoria5079]

thank u!

[@michaelmke]

You're welcome. I was so glad to come across this poem too!

[@wdchefdave56]

His collections of short stories kept me in a dream for decades. The dreamer may have died... but, the dream carries on! What a great man. (He wrote a story or two for Twilight Zone and Star Trek back in those days.)

[@poetcomic1]

Never lost that Midwest Illinois accent, I love it.

[@GuavTube]

there you go- transcribed it this morning, think i've listened to it 50 times on repeat!

[@skylerv94]

easily the best thing I've seen this week...

[@richardlee2120]

Ray Bradbury was a friend. My late great aunt introduced me to him, as she used to drive him to the writers meetings in the 1960s since he didn't drive.

[@GermanCityGirl]

Thank you for posting this video.

[@melaniesimms621]

I have always loved his poems … he wasn't as well known for them, of course, and many people are surprised by it, but he is a never ending source of joy, wonder and creative expansion. You can feel the wonder in his voice and that is part of what I have always been so drawn to about him .. he is a little boy inside a man who never lost his childlike curiosity. That, and of course, he is just a terrifically talented writer!

[@plasmalux]

When we get to Mars, they'll name towns and cities after these legends!

[@ErykaSoleil]

plasmalux : That would be so awesome!

[@poettree52]

Meanwhile, in August 2012 NASA named the Mars Curiosity Rover landing site "Bradbury Landing." So well deserved! He will never be forgotten.

[@markc9503]

I got something in my eye man.

[@Gelinika]

yes he was...my father met him many years ago...RayBradbury did a seminar in Denver and afterwards needed a ride to the bus as he didnt drive...that's how my father got to know him ...they kept in touch throughout the years.:)

[@dottielung]

RIP, Ray....Your stories are out of this world! You are irreplaceable, a league all your own.

[@nedkelly05]

Another good man. Thank you for your struggle, determination born of self-belief in writing 451. One of the important books. And should you're prophecy come true (and i fear it will) it will be a high compliment that those small minds will seek out 451 as one if the first books to be burned. Shine on Ray Bradbury.

[@johnboystrong315]

That was so amazing!! Arthur,Carl, and Ray. Wonder what they are discussing tonight? What giants!

[@ErykaSoleil]

John Strong : Your comment made me tear up, what a beautiful thought. ❤️

[@PanzerBuyer]

Just found out about this great poem on the Nasa TV channel while watching a thrilling update on Pluto via the New Horizons spacecraft. Don't you wish all those scientists and Mr. Bradbury could see all the new data Nasa has collected?

[@5809AUJG]

Our magical and brilliant Magister has begun his journey through the rest of the Universe which he was born knowing so very well. The loss of such a man is enormous. His like had never been, and will never come again.

[@SuperBartles]

NO! I think he'd say we're waiting for the next person of this quality. It's true that I look around and I don't see such brilliance. We have to try, each one of us. That's the lesson..

[@jamesdavies2067]

i miss him

[@GuavTube]

This is the emotional thing you see, you must galvanise people- so they want to be completely alive and live forever, or the next thing to it, and out of that comes art then, and survival through emotion, no matter what happens, even though the world can try to crush you and put you down with facts, break up through the concrete, and say “dammit all, i’m a blade of grass and i will survive!” - Ray Bradbury on Day at Night 1975.

[@twjclarke1]

WHAT IS THE MUSIC IN THE BACKGROUND?

[@EmperorBun]

RIP, and may your vision of the future never come to pass.

[@JerusalemCherry]

Great upload... Interesting man

[@TheFreeAdviceMan]

I was fortunate enough to have met Ray personally and to give him a copy of my first philosophy book. The next day I received a letter from him. I felt like I had met one of his Martians, and I was honoured. " It is good to renew one's wonder, " said the Philosopher. " Space travel has again made children of us all. " ( From 'The Martian Chronicles' by Ray Bradbury )

[@FriedEggsWithChips]

And women. And that they take us to Mars and into a great future. RIP Ray, you will be very sorely missed. My prayers go out.

[@user-ux3eo8kb6t]

He will be remembered through his works. The Martian Chronicles, Fahrenheit 451 and The Illustrated Man are science fiction classics.

[@psychedelickisses420]

That was lovely.

[@LeksiW]

It is a shame that I was not born in a time when Americans were still hopeful of the space program. To have such wonder and hope in the future is a feeling I have never known. Yet, Ray Bradbury's poem beckons me to find that inspiration and support it, to gently blow on the embers of the idea that someday we will have our Martian colony, our trips to Alpha Centauri and much much more.

[@sneezepal]

Bradbury was one of a kind. Godspeed, RB.

[@rosskstar]

wish you'd release the entire discussion

[@Tussyisme]

You stole my words! Thank you! Trying in vain to give you a 'thumbs up', hence this comment.

[@sarahwwilliams]

He was a great person and a great writer.

[@GuavTube]

The fence we walked between the years did balance us serene. It was a place half in the sky wearing the green of leaf and promising of peach. We’d reach our hand and touch and almost touch the sky. If we could reach and touch we said, it would teach us not to, never to, be dead. We ached and almost touched that stuff; our reach was never quite enough.

[@lpdog82]

We all miss you Ray, enjoy your journey through the universe, it was waiting for you (:->)

[@simsim6169]

the man is greatly missed. the world is surely a lesser place with him not in it.

[@4842Chuck]

I was 9 or ten when I read one of his books. In fact it was the first fiction novel I read all the way through. I bet there's a lot of NASA scientists and employees that read his books when they were 9 or 10 too. God's speed!

[@benammarahmed4632]

He is so funny too ^_^ I love him :D

[@urmo345]

there are many, but pioneers are always the ones who become a legends, not those who follow them.

[@zelpho3]

Very saddened to hear the news of Ray Bradbury's death. "Go pantherpawed where the mind truths sleep..."

[@RUAV2TWIN]

Well said. Fingers crossed.

[@clairestephens4916]

In the movie Contact when Jodi Foster's character says..... "They should've sent a poet." This is why.

[@TheMetalEntomologist]

My favorite part is when it shows a young Carl Sagan.

[@Tiger20001]

Bradbury, Clarke and Asimov...The three giants of 20th Century Science Fiction. RIP

[@EdyMar77]

what a loss , a genius , and a real funny guy .

[@alienbaroque]

Mars is Heaven. And Ray took me there.

[@brooklyninja]

Amazing.

[@clintmorrisful]

I'm not crying, you're crying.

[@Hahalol663]

Rest in peace Ray.

[@MrKeeft1]

Wonderful....if ALL sci fi writers were the same mentallity...many are.

[@Someonetosinwith]

Does anyone know if the full version of the recording of the symposium exists? Or a version of the poetry reading without the music in the background? Thanks in advance!

[@kami0721]

sleep well

[@GuavTube]

I work for that, short man, large dream. I send my rockets forth between my ears, hoping an inch of good is worth a pound of years. Aching to hear a voice cry back along the universal mall, “We’ve reached Alpha Centauri.. We’re tall... Oh God, we’re tall!”

[@footballstriker32]

True brilliance

[@vdizhoor]

The poem begins at 2:20. He was and ever will be a tall tall man.

[@Tom0063]

Krocotto - people like you show that we are indeed born in a hole, and that we have a long way to go to get out of it.

[@CherryBomb50]

Dear God, please give us back Ray Bradbury and I'll give you Stephenie Meyer. Amen.

[@Julian20071]

R.I.P.

[@lanamays]

dandelion wine, my favorite one

[@ErykaSoleil]

lana mays : I can't remember if I read Dandelion Wine before or after seeing the tv-movie version of The Halloween Tree, but reading that book definitely hooked me for the long haul, and I remember it fondly. I was the only person in my seventh-grade reading class who wasn't horrifically bored with it. 😆

[@blackopssavage]

R.I.P

[@mrspeel7]

Is that Carl Sagan in the background?

[@amandaelsemannreschke]

Yep.

[@gobii81]

Shoo! This is no place for hate and prejudice sir.

[@1iquid777]

a small part of me died..

[@SonOfTerra92]

Is that Carl Fucking Sagan!

[@afireinside0]

+SonOfTerra92 oh god!!! and he was completely eclipsed by Mr. Bradbury!! I have been crazy for Sagan all my life, but in this magnificent video his presence is a satellite. What a gathering of great personalities there

[@nicholas045]

What does he mean when he says "between my ears?"

[@creion9394]

In his brain, lel

[@Kev95682]

See you on the other side Ray.

[@momojumbo]

RIP

[@ltjgsurething88]

#Bradbury100

[@GuavTube]

If only we had taller been and touched god’s cuff, his, his hem. We would not have to go with them who’ve gone before, who short as us stood tall as they could stand, and hoped by stretching, tall, that they might keep their land, their home, their hearth, their flesh and soul, but they like us were standing in a hole.

[@hammerhead8318]

That was funny.

[@laurarox80]

lol yea I remember him getting angry about the Titanic sky. Could have been!

[@loyalj]

That ten year old boy sure sounds like deGrasse Tyson and his fascination with correcting movies and television show.. even the terse "On page 92... Moons of Mars rising in the east.. No." sound like him.

[@CasabianX]

stanislav lem. stanislav lem....

[@GuavTube]

Oh Thomas, will a race one day stand really tall? Across the void, across the universe and all, and measured out with rocket fire, at last put Adam’s finger forth; as on the Sistine ceiling, and God’s hand come down the other way, to measure man, and find him good, and gift him with forever’s day?

[@shaygahweh]

it doesn't.

[@brooklyninja]

Amazing.