SPEAK OUT: Author Ray Bradbury Dies

Ray Bradbury, one of the best known science fiction writers in U.S. history, died in California on Tuesday, it was reported Wednesday. He was 91.

His best-known writings were on horror and mystery.

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Bradbury broke through in 1950 with "The Martian Chronicles," a series of intertwined stories that satirized capitalism, racism and superpower tensions as it portrayed Earth colonizers destroying an idyllic Martian civilization, USA TODAY reported.

Added USA TODAY: "The Martian Chronicles" prophesized the banning of books, a theme Bradbury would also take on in the 1953 release, "Fahrenheit 451." Inspired by the Cold War, the rise of television and the author's passion for libraries, it was an apocalyptic narrative of nuclear war abroad and empty pleasure at home, with firefighters assigned to burn books instead of putting blazes out. (Bradbury was told that 451 degrees Fahrenheit was the temperature at which texts went up in flames).

Bradbury also wrote the screenplay for John Huston's classic film adaptation of "Moby Dick."

"In a career spanning more than seventy years, Ray Bradbury has inspired generations of readers to dream, think, and create," said a statement by his publisher, HarperCollins. "A prolific author of hundreds of short stories and close to fifty books, as well as numerous poems, essays, operas, plays, teleplays, and screenplays, Bradbury was one of the most celebrated writers of our time."