SOUNDING OFF: A library evening rich in stories

Last Friday evening Ray Bradbury was the speaker at a Friends of the Library program. The Friends had supplied refreshments, and while the assembled of all ages ate and drank, a gentle buzz of anticipation filled the room.

The program was scheduled for 6 p.m. With no guest speaker in sight more than an hour later, a subdued wave of impatient stirrings began.

Friends President Martha Lydick welcomed us all, asked for our patience, and drafted Karyn Philippsen, Laguna Beach Visitor’s Bureau representative, to tell us about her recent trip to Menton, France, our proposed first sister city, which she had recently visited.

Karyn told us a story about her trip to Menton: of its art, music, buildings and the Cocteau Museum; about the geography of this town, nestled between the Mediterranean Sea of the Riviera and the foothills of the Alps; she told us of the gracious and welcoming citizenry who want very much to be our first sister city.

When Karyn finished, we still were without our guest speaker. A few of us were concerned for Bradbury’s well-being. After all, he is more than 87 years old and it was a cold evening.

His driver was coping with the usual Friday night traffic, as well as the cars of holiday shoppers. Some of the audience had quietly left, but our section of the room stayed firmly planted. We had faith.

After a brief interval, someone in the audience suggested we read one of Bradbury’s stories. Rebecca Porter, the children’s librarian, produced a book, selected the story “Dandelion Wine,” and asked if a member of the audience would volunteer to read.

Finally, a woman stepped forward and took the book and microphone in hand. She read beautifully. I don’t know her name, but I thank her for all of us.

The story was about old age and possessions, and the gift of friendship that miraculously passes across the generations from time to time. It was a wonderful story and completely appropriate to the season. It was also our second story of the evening.

Finally, we looked up to see an elderly gentleman in the room, seated in his wheelchair near the sound equipment. Martha gave him a kiss and introduced him and then we heard our third story.

It was a story of Ray Bradbury’s life and loves. He told of his childhood during the Depression years and the magic of a traveling carnival with Mr. Electro and the Tattooed Man, who would later become The Illustrated Man; about his early love for books and libraries and about Buck Rogers, and the writers Edgar Rice Burroughs, H.G. Wells and Jules Vern, three of his early loves and teachers; about how as a child, he traveled to and from his local library with up to 10 books in his arms.

He told of his street corner newspaper post in Los Angeles during the Depression years where he talked to many of the rich and sometimes famous including Christopher Isherwood and Aldous Huxley, and earned $10 a week to support his family while he wrote; his early marriage to a woman who gave up her inheritance to live on that amount and without furniture for love; about his trip to New York City when they were expecting their first child and had only $30 in the bank when babies cost $100 to be delivered, and where his writing met rejection by all except for Hugh Hefner, who bought his first book for $700, to be serialized in the first three editions of Playboy.

And he told us of his love for drama and Shakespeare’s plays and how his love for “Richard III” and “King Lear” would later help him write the screenplay for “Moby Dick,” produced by John Houston, another of his newspaper corner friends; of his love for Fellini films and his later friendship with the great filmmaker.

Appropriately, he told of his lifelong love for libraries. They supplied both his early teachers in their books and also provided places to write, including the basement of the UCLA library.

Wherever he travels, he stops in the local library when he can, and for this reason speaks willingly at library events “” even on a cold Friday night in December in our little town “” for libraries remain his first of many loves.

Bradbury concluded by saying these were all the stories of love “” his love for books, especially fantasy and science fiction; for his wife who married a poor author mid-depression and renounced an inheritance to do so; for theater and Fellini films; and always his love for libraries.

And he told us to find and follow our loves.

When the talk ended, he signed autographs and talked with individuals for more than an hour.

On our way home, I thought about the three stories I had heard, about our Laguna Beach community, and our many groups like Friends of the Library, which make our town such a special place.

In particular, I thought about Ray Bradbury, and his wise and elegant simplicity.

?ANNE JOHNSON lives in Laguna Beach.