UMBC NEWS

Read More UMBC News Blog Stories

September 24, 2001

**CANCELLED**
Ray Bradbury to Speak at UMBC as Part of Annual Humanities Forum Series

Baltimore, Md. – Ray Bradbury, one of the most important figures in the development of science fiction as a literary genre over the past half-century, will speak at UMBC on Thursday, October 18 at 7 p.m. in the University Center Ballroom. His lecture, entitled “Remembering the Future, Predicting the Past,” is sponsored by the Friends of the Library & Gallery and part of UMBC's 2001-2002 Humanities Forum “Humanities in the Digital Age.” The lecture is free of charge. For more information call 410.455.6798.

Born in Waukegan, Ill. in 1920, Bradbury began writing at the age of eleven and published his first story at age eighteen. He is the author of more than five hundred works of science fiction, including The Martian Chronicles, Fahrenheit 451, and Something Wicked This Way Comes. Over the course of his career, Bradbury has received many prestigious awards including the O. Henry Award, the Benjamin Franklin Award, and the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement.

This event is CO-sponsored by the Friends of the Albin O. Kuhn Library and Gallery, UMBC's Center for the Humanities, UMBC's Honors College, the Department of English, the Department of American Studies, and the Program in the Human Context of Science and Technology. The entire schedule for the Humanities Forum is available at www.umbc.edu/humanities.

For more information on UMBC's Special Collections, call 410-455-2353 or visit aok.lib.umbc.edu/speccoll/. Special Collections hours are Mon-Fri, 1-4 p.m. with extended hours on Thursdays, 4-8 p.m.

Science Fiction Special Collection at UMBCUMBC is home to one of the most comprehensive science fiction collections in the U.S., with substantial holdings of famous titles from the genre: Amazing/Analog, Thrilling Wonder Stories, Weird Tales among others and more ephemeral tiles like Comet, Rocket Stories and Satellite Science Fiction.

UMBC's holdings of popular fiction serials includes titles from the early 20th century to current subscriptions. Originally printed on cheap paper, the “pulps” provided both new and established authors a venue for their work.

Bradbury's Writings on Display at UMBCUMBC's collection of Bradbury's writings date back to his earliest writings. In advance of Bradbury's visit to UMBC, Special Collections will display in the Library Rotunda first-editions of many of Bradbury's books as well as his early writings from fanzines and “pulp” magazines. The exhibition will be titled, “Ray Bradbury: Selected Literary Works from the Azriel Rosenfeld Science Fiction Research Collection.”

The Azriel Rosenfeld Science Fiction Research CollectionThe Rosenfeld Collection is a growing collection currently holding approximately 8,000 books and 4,000 issues of science fiction & fantasy periodicals, science fiction criticism and reference works. For those with an interest in the "Golden Age" of science fiction, the collection has extensive holdings of science fiction "pulps" from the 1920's - 1950's plus original manuscripts, personal papers and a large collection of amateur press "fanzines."

Posted by dwinds1 at September 24, 2001 12:00 AM