What we should know about Ray Bradbury

Not only did he write more than 500 novels and stories, but also movie scripts, playes and poems.

I did not know that he wrote the actual screenplay of John Huston's Moby Dick (1956); he wrote scripts for Alfred Hitchcock ; he designed the interior of Spaceship Earth at Disney World. A crater on the moon is named Dandelion Crater in honour of his novel Dandelion Wine. Wow, what a legacy....

About Gorky

Simon Sebag comments in his book Young Stalin: " Gorky , later in life, would become the dictator's friend, shameful apologist, pathetic trophy and possibly victim." (p. 179)

Kurban Said

Kurban Said is another pseudonym of Lev Nussimbaum. He also wrote under the name of Essad Bey. He wrote "Ali and Nino" under the name of Kurban Said.

Young Stalin

Reading Young Stalin by Simon Sebag and what sticks to my head is that Koba or Soso (as he also was known as) was very enigmatic, charismatic, ambitious morose, malicious, self-conscious, "using any means if the ends justify them". (Young Stalin, 2007)