So the Fahrenheit Man is gone. Ray Bradbury, the master science fiction author of such classics as Fahrenheit 451, Something Wicked This Way Comes and The Illustrated Man died Tuesday at age 91.

Bradbury was one of the earliest science fiction authors I read years ago in Colombo.  where I used to browse the shelves of my friend P.A.’s father’s library. That exposure gave me a lifelong affinity for science fiction as a genre and a concept. I’ve always thought that science fiction writers were closest to philosophers in the breadth and scope of their vision and Ray Bradbury was certainly instrumental in the formation of that opinion.

The man may be no more, but his rich legacy lives on, and will continue to intrigue both the casual reader and the science fiction enthusiast for years to come. R.I.P.