Sam Weller, a scholar and authorized biographer of writer Ray Bradbury will participate in two local events as part of this year’s Big Read program.
Weller became friends with Bradbury before the author died last year. His biography of the science fiction writer, “The Bradbury Chronicles,” was published in 2006.
Weller will be the guest speaker Thursday, Oct. 24 from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Beloit Public Library.
Then on Friday, Oct. 25, he will be at luncheon at the Elkhorn Community Center 101 N. Wisconsin St., Elkhorn. Doors will open at 11:30 a.m.
The luncheon and program are scheduled from noon to 2 p.m. Tickets cost $15 per person and may be reserved by phoning Roberta Rohdin Killian: (262) 245-9268. The luncheon is open to the public, but seating is limited. Proceeds will benefit the scholarship fund.
The Elkhorn appearance is sponsored by the The Geneva Lake branch of the American Association of University Women.
This year’s selection for The Big Read, 60 years after its original publication, is “Farenheit 451” written by Ray Bradbury. It is an internationally acclaimed novel, which stands as a classic of world literature set in a bleak, dystopian future, whose message has grown more relevant than ever before.
The main character is a fireman whose job it is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. He never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland wife who spends all day with her television “family.” But when an eccentric young neighbor introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of TV, he begins to question everything he has known.
Bradbury famously agreed to have his book available digitally, but only if libraries could offer the download for free.
The Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts.
