Perfect Additions
Fahrenheit 451
Ray Bradbury was born in Illinois in 1920, and spent most of his life in Los Angeles. He did not go to university and was a full-time writer from the age of 23; his short story ‘Homecoming’ was picked from the slush pile at Mademoiselle magazine by Truman Capote. Bradbury’s first book, a collection of short stories entitled Dark Carnival, was published in 1947. The Martian Chronicles (1950) was followed by The Illustrated Man (1951) and his seminal work of dystopian science fiction, Fahrenheit 451, in 1953 (Folio 2011; 2026). He died in 2012.
Michael Moorcock is one of the most important figures in British Sci-Fi and Fantasy literature. His novels have won, and been shortlisted for, numerous awards including the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, Whitbread and Guardian Fiction Prize. In 1999, he was given the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award; in 2001, he was inducted into the Sci-Fi Hall of Fame; and in 2007, he was named a SFWA Grandmaster. His tenure as editor of New Worlds magazine in the sixties and seventies is seen as the high watermark of Sci-Fi editorship in the UK and was crucial in the development of the Sci-Fi New Wave.
Although born in London, he now splits his time between homes in Texas and Paris. As well as 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968; Folio 2016) and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (2000; Folio 2020), Moorcock introduced the Folio book of Fahrenheit 451 (1953; Folio 2011) and wrote the preface to Marvel: The Silver Age 1960–1970 (2018).