Ray Bradbury, the full name Ray Douglas Bradbury, was an American author best known for his highly imaginative short stories and novels that combine a poetic style, childhood nostalgia, social criticism, and an awareness of the dangers of rogue technology.
He was born on August 22, 1920, in Waukegan, Illinois, and passed away on June 5, 2012, in Los Angeles, California.
Early Years Of Ray Bradbury
The Phantom of the Opera (1925), L. Frank Baum Edgar Rice Burroughs’ books and the first science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories, were among the horror movies Bradbury adored as a child. Bradbury frequently cited a meeting with Mr. Electrico, a carnival magician, as a significant influence in 1932. Mr. Electrico, covered in static electricity, touched the young Bradbury’s nose and said, “Live forever!” Bradbury returned to the fair the following day to consult Mr. Electrico about a magic trick.
He revealed to Bradbury that he was a reincarnation of his best friend, who perished in World War I after Mr. Electrico introduced him to the other carnival performers. Later, Bradbury noted, “a few days later, I started writing full-time. Since that day, I have written every single day of my life.
Ray Bradbury First short stories
1934 brought Bradbury’s family to LA. In 1937, Bradbury joined the Los Angeles Science Fiction League, where young writers like Henry Kuttner, Edmond Hamilton, Robert Heinlein, and Leigh Brackett encouraged him weekly. Bradbury’s first short story, “Hollerbochen’s Dilemma,” appeared in Imagination! His 1939 fanzine Futuria Fantasia.
Bradbury met many genre editors at NYC’s first World Science Fiction convention. In 1941, Super Science Stories published his first professional science fiction story, “Pendulum,” written with Henry Hasse. Weird Tales published Bradbury’s early fantasy and horror. Most are in Dark Carnival, his first short story collection (1947). Bradbury used metaphors and similes.
In the mid-1940s, Bradbury published in major magazines like The American Mercury, Harper’s, and McCall’s, pulp magazines like Planet Stories and Thrilling Wonder Stories, and “slicks” like The New Yorker and Collier’s. Earth’s colonization of Mars destroys an idyllic Martian civilization in The Martian Chronicles, a 1950 short story collection.
After Earth is destroyed, a few survivors return to Mars to become Martians. The Illustrated Man published his most famous story, “The Veldt,” in 1951. Mothers and fathers worry about their children’s reaction to their house’s African veldt lion simulation.
Fahrenheit 451, Dandelion Wine, and Scripts
Fahrenheit 451 (1953), Bradbury’s subsequent book, is regarded as his best. Guy Montag, a “fireman” whose job is to burn books in a society where they are forbidden, takes a book and finds himself drawn in by reading. For its anti-censorship themes and defense of literature against the encroachment of electronic media, Fahrenheit 451 has received praise. In 1966, a well-received movie adaptation was released.
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The Fog Horn is a story about two lighthouse keepers’ terrifying encounter with a sea monster; the title story is about a rocket’s harrowing journey to scoop up a piece of the Sun, and “A Sound of Thunder” is a story about a safari back to the Mesozoic to hunt a Tyrannosaurus, were all included in the collection The Golden Apples of the Sun (1953).
Bradbury worked on the screenplay for the 1956 movie Moby Dick for six months in Ireland with director John Huston in 1954; he later fictionalized this experience in his book Green Shadows, White Whale (1992). Bradbury became a sought-after screenwriter in Hollywood following the success of Moby Dick and produced scripts for Playhouse 90, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and The Twilight Zone.
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Dandelion Wine (1957), one of Bradbury’s most intimate works, is an autobiographical novel about a 12-year-old boy’s magical but all-too-short summer in Green Town, Illinois (a fictionalized version of his childhood home of Waukegan). “All Summer in a Day,” a moving account of child abuse on Venus, where the Sun only emerges once every seven years, was included in his subsequent collection, A Medicine for Melancholy (1959). Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962), in which a carnival comes to town run by the enigmatic and evil Mr. Dark, was once more set in the Midwest of his youth. The Anthem Sprinters and Other Antics, his first collection of short plays, was released the following year.
Later work And Recognition
Bradbury wrote poetry and drama in the 1970s instead of short stories. Death Is a Lonely Business (1985), an homage to Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett set in 1949 Venice, California, where Bradbury lived, was his return to the mystery genre. His 1950s and ’60s Hollywood experiences inspired two sequels, A Graveyard for Lunatics (1990) and Let’s All Kill Constance (2002). Farewell Summer (2006), his last novel, followed Dandelion Wine. The Ray Bradbury Theatre adapted 59 of his stories (1985–92).
Bradbury said his only science fiction book was Fahrenheit 451. He mainly wrote fantasy, horror, and mysteries. “I leap into the air and never come back using a scientific idea,” he said. He won an Emmy for animating The Halloween Tree (1994) and the National Medal of Arts (2004). Bradbury received a 2007 Pulitzer Prize Board Special Citation.
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