Ray Bradbury may be at peace, but I doubt he’s resting. Herewith an old essay of mine on the boy from Waukegan as a Midwestern regionalist.
Ray of Light

Bill Kauffman
Bill Kauffman is the author of eleven books, among them Dispatches from the Muckdog Gazette (Henry Holt), Ain’t My America (Metropolitan), Look Homeward, America (ISI), and Poetry Night at the Ballpark (FPR Books). His next book, Upstaters, is due from SUNY Press in 2026. He is a columnist for The American Conservative and The Spectator World. Bill wrote the screenplay for the 2013 feature film Copperhead. He is a founding editor of Front Porch Republic and has served as a legislative assistant to Senator Pat Moynihan, editor for various magazines and publishers, and vice president of the Batavia Muckdogs, a professional baseball team that was euthanized by Major League Baseball. He lives with his wife Lucine in his native Genesee County, New York.
More to Consider
- Ray Bradbury Turns 90
Raise a glass of dandelion wine to the dreamy kid from Waukegan, Illinois, who today becomes a nonagenarian. Herewith my appreciation of Bradbury from a while back: https://www.frontporchrepublic.com/2009/06/ray-bradbury-of-illinois/
- Ray Bradbury of Illinois
BURNED-OVER DISTRICT, NY---"Here comes the summer!" as the Undertones rejoiced. The Muckdogs' home opener is next Friday, and two days later the sun makes the season official. In preparation, today…
- Reading the Constitution in the Light of Russell Kirk
Berwyn, PA. Gerald Russello reflects on Russell Kirk's theory of the unwritten Constitutionone in a new essay published on the Liberty Fund's Liberty Forum. His essay is part…