Time-traveling scientists help a very talented, Edgar Allen Poe-esque author who died too young of a preventable disease and/or alcoholism.
I read it many years ago and would like to do so again. Anyone know it?
:: crickets chirping ::
Anybody?
I think you want “The Exiles.” It looks at what happens to the spirits of the creators of books when all the books are destroyed.
No, I remember that, and the one I’m thinking of is a straight time-travel story.
Damn, I remember that one. It was in a book of Bradbury short stories I had when I was a teenager. I’ll have to see if I can dig that one up.
There was one about helping Hemmingway die in a plane crash over Kilimanjaro when he was a young man rather than descend further into the depths of alcoholism and take his own life. Ring any bells? I think it was called “The Snows of Kilimanjaro.”
ETA: Actually called The Kilimanjaro Device.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Sing_the_Body_Electric_(Bradbury)
well, that is more about dinosaurs than anything…never mind 
I don’t remember the exact name but I’m pretty sure it is in the book One More For The Road. I checked it out from the library last week. I am fairly sure it is the story you are talking about but many, many of his stories involve time travel and famous authors (at least 3 that I have read at any rate) so I can’t guarantee anything but check out One More For The Road and see if the story you are looking for is in there.
This sounds suspiciously like “Gianni” by Robert Silverberg. Scientists use a “time scoop” to rescue a Mozart-type musician immediately prior to his Mozart-type death, and leave a dead clone in his place. Their hope is that with modern medicine and the right kind of encouragement, he can go on creating amazing classical music.
Instead, he hits on all his nurses, discovers rock-n-roll music, and becomes another asshole celebrity rock star who dies an asshole celebrity rock star death (drug overdose, plane crash, or some combination thereof).
This story appeared in Playboy circa 1982.
No, thanks, I’m sure it was Bradbury, and it was none of those mentioned so far.
Thanks. I’ve now done so. I’ll let you all know when/if I get an answer.