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 Ray Bradbury
Poet, Author (1920-2012)

American fantasy and horror author Ray Bradbury is best known for his
novels 'Fahrenheit 451,' 'The Illustrated Man' and 'The Martian
Chronicles.'

Who Was Ray Bradbury?

Ray Bradbury was an American fantasy and horror author who rejected being
categorized as a science fiction author, claiming that his work was based on the
fantastical and unreal. His best known novel is Fahrenheit 451, a dystopian
study of future American society in which critical thought is outlawed. He is also
remembered for several other popular works, including The Martian Chronicles
and Something Wicked This Way Comes. Bradbury won the Pulitzer in 2004,
and is one of the most celebrated authors of the 21st century. He died in Los
Angeles on June 5, 2012, at the age of 91.

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Early Life
Author Ray Douglas Bradbury was born on August 22, 1920, in Waukegan,
Illinois, to Leonard Spaulding Bradbury, a lineman for power and telephone
utilities, and Ester Moberg Bradbury, a Swedish immigrant. Bradbury enjoyed a
relatively idyllic childhood in Waukegan, which he later incorporated into several
semi-autobiographical novels and short stories. As a child, he was a huge fan
of magicians, and a voracious reader of adventure and fantasy fiction —
especially L. Frank Baum, Jules Verne and Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Bradbury decided to become a writer at about age 12 or 13. He later said that
he made the decision in hopes of emulating his heroes, and to "live forever"
through his fiction.

Bradbury's family moved to Los Angeles, California in 1934. As a teenager, he

participated in his school's drama club and occasionally befriended Hollywood
celebrities. His first official pay as a writer came for contributing a joke to

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 George Burns' Burns & Allen Show. After graduation from high school in 1938,
Bradbury couldn't afford to go to college, so he went to the local library instead.
"Libraries raised me," he later said. "I believe in libraries because most students
don't have any money. When I graduated from high school, it was during the
Depression, and we had no money. I couldn't go to college, so I went to the
library three days a week for 10 years."

Literary Works and Honors

To support himself while he wrote, Bradbury sold newspapers. He published his
first short story in a fan magazine in 1938, the same year he graduated from
high school. The next year, he published four issues of his own fan magazine,
Futuria Fantasia. Nearly every piece in the magazine was written by Bradbury
himself; he used a variety of pseudonyms to try to hide the fact that the
magazine was a virtual one-man show. "I was still years away from writing my
first good short story," he later said, "but I could see my future. I knew where I
wanted to go."

Bradbury sold his first professional piece, the story "Pendulum," in November
1941, just a month before the United States entered World War II, following the
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Ruled ineligible for military service by his
local draft board because of his vision problems, Bradbury became a full-time
writer by early 1943. His first collection of short stories, Dark Carnival, was
published in 1947.

That same year, he married Marguerite "Maggie" McClure, whom he met while
she was working as a clerk at a bookstore. McClure was the breadwinner in the
early days of their marriage, supporting Bradbury as he worked on his writing
for little to no pay. The couple had four daughters, Susan (1949), Ramona

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 (1951), Bettina (1955) and Alexandra (1958).

In 1950, Bradbury published his first major work, The Martian Chronicles, which
detailed the conflict between humans colonizing the red planet and the native
Martians they encountered there. While taken by many to be a work of science
fiction, Bradbury himself considered it to be fantasy. "I don't write science
fiction," he said. "Science fiction is a depiction of the real. Fantasy is a depiction
of the unreal. So Martian Chronicles is not science fiction, it's fantasy. It couldn't
happen, you see?" Television and comic book adaptations of Bradbury's short
stories began to appear in 1951, introducing him to a wider audience.

Bradbury's best-known work, Fahrenheit 451, published in 1953, became an

instant classic in the era of McCarthyism for its exploration of themes of
censorship and conformity. In 2007 Bradbury himself disputed that censorship
was the main theme of Fahrenheit 451, instead explaining the book as a story
about how television drives away interest in reading: "Television gives you the
dates of Napoleon, but not who he was."

Despite his apparent distaste for television, Bradbury advocated for film
adaptations of his work. He wrote numerous screenplays and treatments,
including a 1956 take on Moby Dick. In 1986, Bradbury developed his own
HBO television series, allowing him to produce adaptations of his short stories.
The series ran until 1992.

Famously prolific, Bradbury wrote for several hours every day throughout his
entire life, allowing him to publish more than 30 books, close to 600 short
stories, and numerous poems, essays, screenplays and plays.

Though Bradbury won many honors and awards throughout his life, his favorite

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 was perhaps being named "ideas consultant" for the United States Pavilion at
the 1964 World's Fair. "Can you imagine how excited I was?" he later said
about the honor. "'Cause I'm changing lives, and that's the thing. If you can
build a good museum, if you can make a good film, if you can build a good
world's fair, if you can build a good mall, you're changing the future. You're
influencing people, so that they'll get up in the morning and say, 'Hey, it's
worthwhile going to work.' That's my function, and it should be the function of
every science fiction writer around. To offer hope. To name the problem and
then offer the solution. And I do, all the time."

HBO Adaptation of 'Fahrenheit 451'

In April 2017 HBO announced it was developing Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 into
a film adaptation, which will star actors Michael
Michael
Michael Shannon
Shannon
Shannon and Michael
Michael
Michael B.
B.
B.
Jordan
Jordan,
Jordan the latter also serving as executive producer on the project.

Death and Legacy

Bradbury wrote well into his 80s, dictating for three hours at a time to one of his
daughters, who would transcribe his words to the page. Though curtailing much
of his traveling and public appearances, he granted several interviews in his
latter years and helped raise funds for his local library.

In 2007, Bradbury received a special citation from the Pulitzer board for his
"distinguished, prolific and deeply influential career as an unmatched author of
Michael Shannon Michael B.
science fiction and fantasy." In his final years, Bradbury felt content about his
Jordan
place in the annals of science fiction history, having achieved his childhood
ambition of living forever through his work. "I don't need to be vindicated," he
said, "and I don't want attention. I never question. I never ask anyone else's

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 opinion. They don't count."

Bradbury died in Los Angeles on June 5, 2012, at the age of 91. He was
survived by daughters Susan, Ramona, Bettina and Alexandra, as well as
several grandchildren. An inspiration to writers, teachers and science-fiction
enthusiasts, among countless others, Bradbury's fascinating works will be
remembered for decades to come.

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