Ray Bradbury

Born

in Waukegan, Illinois, The United States

August 22, 1920

Died

June 05, 2012

Website

http://www.raybradbury.com/

Genre

Literature & Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Horror

Influences

Edgar Rice Burroughs, John Steinbeck, Jules Verne, Stanley G. Weinbaum

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American novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright, screenwriter and poet, was born August 22, 1920 in Waukegan, Illinois. He graduated from a Los Angeles high school in 1938. Although his formal education ended there, he became a "student of life," selling newspapers on L.A. street corners from 1938 to 1942, spending his nights in the public library and his days at the typewriter. He became a full-time writer in 1943, and contributed numerous short stories to periodicals before publishing a collection of them, Dark Carnival, in 1947.

His reputation as a writer of courage and vision was established with the publication of The Martian Chronicles in 1950, which describes the first attempts of Earth people to conquer and colonize Mars American novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright, screenwriter and poet, was born August 22, 1920 in Waukegan, Illinois. He graduated from a Los Angeles high school in 1938. Although his formal education ended there, he became a "student of life," selling newspapers on L.A. street corners from 1938 to 1942, spending his nights in the public library and his days at the typewriter. He became a full-time writer in 1943, and contributed numerous short stories to periodicals before publishing a collection of them, Dark Carnival, in 1947.

His reputation as a writer of courage and vision was established with the publication of The Martian Chronicles in 1950, which describes the first attempts of Earth people to conquer and colonize Mars, and the unintended consequences. Next came The Illustrated Man and then, in 1953, Fahrenheit 451, which many consider to be Bradbury's masterpiece, a scathing indictment of censorship set in a future world where the written word is forbidden. In an attempt to salvage their history and culture, a group of rebels memorize entire works of literature and philosophy as their books are burned by the totalitarian state. Other works include The October Country, Dandelion Wine, A Medicine for Melancholy, Something Wicked This Way Comes, I Sing the Body Electric!, Quicker Than the Eye, and Driving Blind. In all, Bradbury has published more than thirty books, close to 600 short stories, and numerous poems, essays, and plays. His short stories have appeared in more than 1,000 school curriculum "recommended reading" anthologies.

Ray Bradbury's work has been included in four Best American Short Story collections. He has been awarded the O. Henry Memorial Award, the Benjamin Franklin Award, the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement, the Grand Master Award from the Science Fiction Writers of America, the PEN Center USA West Lifetime Achievement Award, among others. In November 2000, the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters was conferred upon Mr. Bradbury at the 2000 National Book Awards Ceremony in New York City.

Ray Bradbury has never confined his vision to the purely literary. He has been nominated for an Academy Award (for his animated film Icarus Montgolfier Wright), and has won an Emmy Award (for his teleplay of The Halloween Tree). He adapted sixty-five of his stories for television's Ray Bradbury Theater. He was the creative consultant on the United States Pavilion at the 1964 New York World's Fair. In 1982 he created the interior metaphors for the Spaceship Earth display at Epcot Center, Disney World, and later contributed to the conception of the Orbitron space ride at Euro-Disney, France.

Married since 1947, Mr. Bradbury and his wife Maggie lived in Los Angeles with their numerous cats. Together, they raised four daughters and had eight grandchildren. Sadly, Maggie passed away in November of 2003.

On the occasion of his 80th birthday in August 2000, Bradbury said, "The great fun in my life has been getting up every morning and rushing to the typewriter because some new idea has hit me. The feeling I have every day is very much the same as it was when I was twelve. In any event, here I am, eighty years old, feeling no different, full of a great sense of joy, and glad for the long life that has been allowed me. I have good plans for the next ten or twenty years, and I hope you'll come along." ...more

Combine Editions
Ray Bradbury's Books

Average rating: 3.99 · 1,463,150 ratings · 48,562 reviews · 456 distinct works · Similar authors

	Fahrenheit 451 3.96 avg rating — 1,015,272 ratings — published 1953 — 435 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Martian Chronicles 4.11 avg rating — 132,805 ratings — published 1950	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Something Wicked This Way Comes (Green Town, #2) 3.95 avg rating — 63,533 ratings — published 1962 — 126 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Illustrated Man 4.12 avg rating — 49,994 ratings — published 1951 — 111 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Dandelion Wine (Green Town, #1) 4.07 avg rating — 34,653 ratings — published 1946 — 117 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Halloween Tree 3.92 avg rating — 9,842 ratings — published 1972 — 65 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	I Sing the Body Electric! & Other Stories 4.07 avg rating — 8,953 ratings — published 1969 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The October Country 4.16 avg rating — 8,630 ratings — published 1955 — 64 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Zen in the Art of Writing 4.11 avg rating — 8,055 ratings — published 1987 — 27 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Golden Apples of the Sun 4.08 avg rating — 5,805 ratings — published 1953 — 55 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Ray Bradbury…

Series by Ray Bradbury

Crumley Mysteries (3 books)
by Ray Bradbury
3.62 avg rating — 5,268 ratings

The Ray Bradbury Chronicles (6 books)
by Ray Bradbury
4.13 avg rating — 237 ratings

Quotes by Ray Bradbury

“You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”
― Ray Bradbury

tags: culture, reading

9532 likes

“I have never listened to anyone who criticized my taste in space travel, sideshows or gorillas. When this occurs, I pack up my dinosaurs and leave the room.”
― Ray Bradbury, Zen in the Art of Writing

tags: humour, individuality, science-fiction

5363 likes

“You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.”
― Ray Bradbury, Zen in the Art of Writing

tags: writing

5248 likes

See all Ray Bradbury's quotes »

Polls

October 2014 Revisit the Shelf Poll

1818, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, 273 pages

26 votes, 14.5%

1860, The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, 672 pages

25 votes, 14.0%

1925, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, 180 pages

22 votes, 12.3%

1953, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, 227 pages

15 votes, 8.4%

1847, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, 507 pages

14 votes, 7.8%

1929, A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, 355 pages

14 votes, 7.8%

1935, Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier, 320 pages

13 votes, 7.3%

1847, Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray, 867 pages

12 votes, 6.7%

1897, Dracula by Bram Stoker, 488 pages

11 votes, 6.1%

1951, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, 277 pages

10 votes, 5.6%

1814, Mansfield Park by Jane Austen, 507 pages

7 votes, 3.9%

1876, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, 231 pages

6 votes, 3.4%

1851, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale by Herman Melville, 663 pages

4 votes, 2.2%

179 total votes

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