# Help me ID this Ray Bradbury short story **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 2, 2008, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-id-this-ray-bradbury-short-story/451471 "2008-06-02T14:17:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-id-this-ray-bradbury-short-story/451471/1 "2008-06-02T14:17:30Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2008, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-id-this-ray-bradbury-short-story/451471/2 "2008-06-05T13:24:41Z")
:: crickets chirping :: Anybody? ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2008, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-id-this-ray-bradbury-short-story/451471/3 "2008-06-05T14:18:30Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2008, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-id-this-ray-bradbury-short-story/451471/4 "2008-06-05T14:38:15Z")
No, I remember that, and the one I’m thinking of is a straight time-travel story. ---
**Author:** ![velvetjones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/5f9b8f/32.png) [@velvetjones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velvetjones)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2008, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-id-this-ray-bradbury-short-story/451471/5 "2008-06-05T14:52:09Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2008, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-id-this-ray-bradbury-short-story/451471/6 "2008-06-05T14:58:31Z")
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. > **[I Sing the Body Electric! (short story collection)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Sing_the_Body_Electric_%28Bradbury%29)** > > I Sing the Body Electric! is a 1969 collection of short stories by Ray Bradbury. The book takes its name from an included short story of the same title, which in turn took the title from a poem by Walt Whitman published in his collection Leaves of Grass. > The collection includes these stories: > In 1998, Avon Books published I Sing the Body Electric! and Other Stories, which includes all the stories from the original collection as well as the following stories from Long After Midnight: > Joanna R... ---
**Author:** ![Surbey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@Surbey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surbey)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2008, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-id-this-ray-bradbury-short-story/451471/7 "2008-06-05T15:22:48Z")
[A Sound of Thunder?](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Sound_of_Thunder) ---
**Author:** ![Surbey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@Surbey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surbey)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2008, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-id-this-ray-bradbury-short-story/451471/8 "2008-06-05T15:29:11Z")
well, that is more about dinosaurs than anything…never mind 😃 ---
**Author:** ![pbbth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f9ae1b/32.png) [@pbbth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pbbth)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2008, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-id-this-ray-bradbury-short-story/451471/9 "2008-06-05T15:59:28Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2008, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-id-this-ray-bradbury-short-story/451471/10 "2008-06-05T16:06:23Z")
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir] 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? [/QUOTE] 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. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2008, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-id-this-ray-bradbury-short-story/451471/11 "2008-06-05T19:36:09Z")
No, thanks, I’m sure it was Bradbury, and it was none of those mentioned so far. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2008, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-id-this-ray-bradbury-short-story/451471/12 "2008-06-06T03:50:17Z")
Ask the knowledgeable folks at the official [Ray Bradbury Message Board](http://raybradburyboard.com/groupee). ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2008, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-id-this-ray-bradbury-short-story/451471/13 "2008-06-06T04:43:16Z")
[QUOTE=Walloon] Ask the knowledgeable folks at the official [Ray Bradbury Message Board](http://raybradburyboard.com/groupee). [/QUOTE] Thanks. I’ve now done so. I’ll let you all know when/if I get an answer.