Eller, director of The Center for Ray Bradbury Studies at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, spent much of Wednesday taking calls from media around the globe, including Australia, showing Bradbury’s reach and Eller’s grasp on that reach.

The two knew each other for about 23 years, became professional and personal friends, and collaborated on re-issues, compilations, restored publications and a two-part biography of the author. Eller’s “Becoming Ray Bradbury,” the first book in the set, was published last year and covers the author’s childhood and establishment as a writer. “Bradbury Unbound,” the second book, planned for a 2014 publication, will pick up at the beginning of the height of his writing career in about the 1940s and beyond.

Eller visited Bradbury in California once or twice a year for a week or so at a time. His last visit was in March, and while Bradbury had clearly slowed down, he still began each day with optimism and purpose, Eller said.

Eller said he probably read his first Bradbury fiction when he was 10 or 11 years old in the early 1960s and met the author when he attended a science-fiction conference hosted at the Air Force Academy in Colorado, where Eller was teaching at the time.

Bradbury seemed to like Eller’s questions, focusing more on the forensics and origins of his writing and his imagination, and the two found a kinship that developed into collaborations.

Eller said the label “science fiction,” routinely applied to Bradbury’s work, is too restrictive, though the author began his literary forays with pulp science-fiction magazines that Eller is trying to collect even now.

As the self-taught Bradbury honed his skills, his goal really was to “find the essence of what it is to be human,” Eller said.

Fantasy and futuristic settings offered the structure, but the stories and books were not fundamentally about the framework but rather about the human beings that confronted timeless challenges.

Eller said the Waukegan, Ill., native viewed “Fahrenheit 451” as probably his most significant achievement. The 1953 dystopian novel offers a dark view of American society in a future where all books are outlawed. Often distilled to depict the dangers of book burning, Eller said Bradbury’s message — and fear — was deeper than censorship.

“You don’t have to burn the books,” Eller said, summing up his friend’s view. “All you have to do is get people to stop reading them.”

IUPUI’s Center for Ray Bradbury Studies has a collection of nearly all of the author’s works, in addition to a library of fantasy and science-fiction books. Eller is hunting down original manuscripts and first editions, many of which were changed as they were reprinted, to republish Bradbury’s original words.

The center, established in 2007, is beginning to reach out to the public and is available to researchers. To make arrangements, call Eller at (317) 274-1451 or visit the center’s website at www.iupui.edu/(tilde)crbs/.

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Information from: The Indianapolis Star, http://www.indystar.com