<P> Numerous Bradbury fans paid tribute to the author, noting the influence of his works on their own careers and creations . Filmmaker Steven Spielberg stated that Bradbury was "(his) muse for the better part of (his) sci - fi career...On the world of science fiction and fantasy and imagination he is immortal". Writer Neil Gaiman felt that "the landscape of the world we live in would have been diminished if we had not had him in our world". Author Stephen King released a statement on his website saying, "Ray Bradbury wrote three great novels and three hundred great stories . One of the latter was called' A Sound of Thunder' . The sound I hear today is the thunder of a giant's footsteps fading away . But the novels and stories remain, in all their resonance and strange beauty ." </P> <P> Bradbury is credited with writing 27 novels and over 600 short stories . More than eight million copies of his works, published in over 36 languages, have been sold around the world . </P> <P> In 1949, Bradbury and his wife were expecting their first child . He took a Greyhound bus to New York and checked into a room at the YMCA for 50 cents a night . He took his short stories to a dozen publishers and no one wanted them . Just before getting ready to go home, Bradbury had dinner with an editor at Doubleday . When Bradbury recounted that everyone wanted a novel and he did not have one, the editor, coincidentally named Walter Bradbury, asked if the short stories might be tied together into a book - length collection . The title was the editor's idea; he suggested, "You could call it The Martian Chronicles ." Bradbury liked the idea and recalled making notes in 1944 to do a book set on Mars . That evening, he stayed up all night at the YMCA and typed out an outline . He took it to the Doubleday editor the next morning, who read it and wrote Bradbury a check for $750 . When Bradbury returned to Los Angeles, he connected all the short stories that became The Martian Chronicles . </P> <P> What was later issued as a collection of stories and vignettes, Summer Morning, Summer Night, started out to be Bradbury's first true novel . The core of the work was Bradbury's witnessing of the American small - town life in the American heartland . </P>

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