Ray Bradbury

雷•布拉德伯里（1920-2012）

生于美国伊利诺伊州的沃基甘。自一九四三年起开始专业写作。他七十多年的写作生涯，激励了数代读者去幻想、思考和创新。他创作了数百篇短篇小说，出版近五十本书，此外还写了大量的诗歌、随笔、歌剧、戏剧、电视和电影剧本。

《华氏451》和《火星编年史》是他最为著名的作品，奠定了其科幻小说大师的地位。他被誉为二十世纪最重要的美国作家之一，“将现代科幻领入主流文学领域最重要的人物”。曾获2000年美国国家图书基金会卓越成就奖，2004年美国国家艺术奖章和2007年普利策特别褒扬奖。

2012年6月6日，九十一岁高龄的布拉德伯里病逝于洛杉矶。时任美国总统的巴拉克•奥巴马亲致悼词：“他的叙事才华重塑了我们的文化，拓宽了我们的世界。”

In a summer that refuses to end, in the deceiving warmth of earliest October, civil war has come to Green Town, Illinois. It is the age-old conflict: the young against the elderly, for control of the clock that ticks their lives ever forward. The first cap-pistol shot heard 'round the town is dead accurate, felling an old man in his tracks, compelling town elder and school board despot Mr. Calvin C. Quartermain to marshal his graying forces and declare total war on the assassin, thirteen-year-old Douglas Spaulding, and his downy-cheeked cohorts. Doug and his cronies, however, are most worthy adversaries who should not be underestimated, as they plan and execute daring campaigns-;matching old Quartermain's experience and cunning with their youthful enthusiasm and devil-may-care determination to hold on forever to childhood's summer. Yet time must ultimately be the victor, with valuable revelations for those on both sides of the conflict. And life waits in ambush to assail Doug Spaulding with its powerful mysteries-;the irresistible ascent of manhood, the sweet surrender to a first kiss . . . </p>

One of the most acclaimed and beloved of American storytellers, Ray Bradbury has come home, revisiting the verdant landscape of one of his most adored works, Dandelion Wine. More than fifty years in the making, the long-awaited sequel, Farewell Summer, is a treasure-;beautiful, poignant, wistful, hilarious, sad, evocative, profound, and unforgettable . . . and proof positive that the flame of wonder still burns brightly within the irrepressible imagination of the incomparable Bradbury. </p>