Ray Bradbury, the author of “The Martian Chronicles,” “Fahrenheit 451,” and many other classics of science fiction and fantasy, died this morning, at the age of ninety-one. Bradbury published two pieces in The New Yorker. The first, a short story titled “I See You Never,” appeared in the issue of November 8, 1947. The story is not science fiction but rather a vignette about a Mexican immigrant named Mr. Ramirez who is forced to leave the United States after he overstays his visa. Escorted by two police officers, he arrives at his landlady’s door to say goodbye. Bradbury describes the pleasures Ramirez had taken in his life in Los Angeles:
On many nights he had walked the silent streets and seen the bright clothes in the windows and bought some of them, and he had seen the jewels and bought some of them for his few lady friends. And he had gone to picture shows five nights a week for a while. Then, also, he had ridden the streetcars—all night some nights—smelling the electricity, his dark eyes moving over the advertisements, feeling the wheels rumble under him, watching the little sleeping houses and big hotels slip by.
more from Ray Bradbury in The New Yorker here.