Friday, August 24, 2007

Start with your imagination

A rather cursory interview, save for this tantalizing bit:
Mr. Bradbury’s literary journey started with the fanzine Futuria Fantasia, which he self-published when he was 18 in 1939. The fanzine’s four issues were anthologized and reissued last month by Graham Press. The fanzine was bankrolled by Forrest J. Ackerman, one of science fiction’s greatest fans and the man said to have coined the term sci-fi; only 100 original copies were printed. They contain early work by such future science fiction luminaries as Hannes Bok and Robert Heinlein.

Mr. Bradbury concedes that his own stories in Futuria Fantasia — many of them published under pseudonyms, to make his stable of writers seem bigger — were crude. “I was still years away from writing my first good short story,” he said, “but I could see my future. I knew where I wanted to go.”

Mr. Bradbury’s authorized biographer, Sam Weller, said: “Futuria Fantasia has always been out of everybody’s grasp. Except for the very well-off fans who could afford to track copies down through collection or auction houses, nobody has ever seen them, let alone owned them.”
Another Grail to seek...

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