‘Fahrenheit’ to light up library

The Laguna Beach Library welcomes Santa and science fiction fans alike this month, with a talk by prolific author Ray Bradbury at 6 p.m. tonight and its annual Winter Open House at 4 p.m. Tuesday.

Admission to the Bradbury talk is $25 for adults and $15 for students, which benefits the Friends of the Laguna Beach Library.

Martha Lydick, a board member of the Friends organization, said Bradbury last came to Laguna in the early 1980s.

The author has always given autographed books to the organization to use as silent auction prizes at its annual meeting.

This year, when Lydick mailed the request, she received a phone call instead.

“He said, ‘Well, what I would like to do is speak,’” Lydick said. Bradbury picked the date himself.

Lydick was most impressed by Bradbury’s elephantine memory.

“I couldn’t believe he still remembered me! I was very flattered,” Lydick said.

The author will arrive at the library after being driven by his chauffeur, Lydick said.

“Ray Bradbury has never driven nor flown,” she said.

He even takes a cruise liner when he visits Paris.

Bradbury will discuss his newest work, “Now and Forever,” which contains two novellas that have never appeared in print.

In “Somewhere a Band Is Playing,” a writer goes to a tiny town in Arizona where no one seems to grow older, and no small children can be seen.

The writer must figure out the town’s seeming enchantment before its destruction.

In “Leviathan ’99,” Bradbury re-imagines Herman Melville’s own leviathan, Moby Dick, in which the whale is transformed into a comet that has the capacity to swallow entire worlds.

In 2099, an astronaut named Ishmael is trapped on a spaceship with a madman bent on chasing the comet’s tail.

  Bradbury’s background

Bradbury, 87, sold newspapers after graduating from a Los Angeles high school in 1938.

His first short story collection was published in 1947, and his reputation was established in 1950 with “The Martian Chronicles.” Soon to follow came his masterpiece, “Fahrenheit 451,” now a staple in secondary school English curricula.

Other stories to follow from the hundreds that have since been published include “Dandelion Wine” and “Something Wicked This Way Comes.”

He has received many lifetime achievement awards, from the National Medal of Arts to the National Book Foundation and science fiction and fantasy organizations; he has been nominated for an Academy Award and has won an Emmy Award. He also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Bradbury lives in Los Angeles with his many cats; his wife Maggie passed away in 2003 after raising four daughters with Bradbury, who has eight grandchildren.

Community celebration

The community celebration, sponsored by the Friends of the Laguna Beach Library, begins at 4 p.m. with a holiday show featuring juggler, comedian and magician Abbit the Average.

Afterward, elves will help guests make seasonal crafts while they enjoy refreshments.

Holiday palettes designed by children for the city’s annual palette competition will also be on display.

To end the evening, Santa will make a visit at 7 p.m.

For more details on either event, call (949) 497-1733.