Early copies of her first editions are here. Large glass cases hold early notebooks and drawings, report cards from her days at Pasadena City College and notes to herself about character development. Butler/The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens It was important to her that the worlds she created be credible to her readers. Curator Natalie Russell went through some '8,000 manuscripts, letters and photographs, and an additional 80 boxes of ephemera' to create an exhibition that shows, in chronological order, how Butler's career was born and evolved, and what influenced her.īutler often posted reminders to herself when she created characters and worlds. 'Octavia Butler: Telling My Stories' is an exhibit currently at the Huntington Library, in the Pasadena suburb of San Marino, Calif. 'They don't call it that,' she corrected him firmly 'somebody probably made that up.') When she died in 2006, she was lauded as a pioneer, an icon and one of America's best writers. ('You have a Genius Grant,' Charlie Rose said in a 2000 interview. Octavia Estelle Butler became one of the world's premier science fiction writers, the first black female science fiction writer to reach national prominence, and the only writer in her genre to receive a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship. First: 'Geez, I can write a better story than that!' And second: 'Somebody got paid for writing that story!' If they could, she decided, then she could, too.Įventually she did exactly that. She was 9 years old and saw a 1954 B-movie called Devil Girl from Mars, and two things struck her.

Octavia Butler used to say she remembers exactly when she decided to become a science fiction writer. (c) Patti Perret/The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens A lifelong bibliophile, she considered libraries sacred spaces.

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