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Ray Bradbury

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Image:Rbradbury.jpg right|thumb|150px|Ray Bradbury in 1945.Image:Rb451.jpg right|thumb|150px|right|Oskar Werner and Julie Christie in ''Fahrenheit 451'' (1966), a movie based on the novel directed by Francois Truffaut. '''Ray Douglas Bradbury''' (born August 22, 1920) is an United States American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery fiction mystery writer known best for ''The Martian Chronicles'', a 1950 book which has been described both as a short story collection and a novel, and his 1953 dystopia dystopian novel ''Fahrenheit 451.''

Beginnings
Ray Bradbury (his given name is not Raymond) was born in Waukegan, Illinois to a Sweden Swedish mother and a father who was a telephone lineman (occupation) lineman. His grandfather and great-grandfather were newspaper publishers, and not surprisingly, Bradbury was a reader and writer throughout his youth, spending much time in the Carnegie library Carnegie Library in Waukegan. His two early books ''Dandelion Wine'' and ''Something Wicked This Way Comes (novel) Something Wicked This Way Comes'' depict the town of Waukegan as "Green Town" and are semi-autobiographical. The Bradbury family lived in Tucson, Arizona, in 1926â€“1927 and 1932â€“1933, each time returning to Waukegan, and eventually settled in Los Angeles, California Los Angeles in 1934, when Ray was thirteen. Bradbury graduated from Los Angeles High School in 1938 but chose not to attend college. To make a living, he sold newspapers at the corner of South Norton Avenue and Olympic Boulevard. He continued to educate himself at the local library, and having been influenced by science fiction heroes like Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers he began to publish science fiction stories in fanzines in 1938. His first paid piece was for the pulp magazine ''Super Science Stories'' in 1941. He became a full-time writer by the end of 1942. His first book, ''Dark Carnival'', a collection of short works, was published in 1947 by Arkham House. He married Marguerite McClure (1922â€“2003) in 1947, and they had four daughters.

Works
Image:Ray Bradbury.jpg left|thumb|150px|Ray Bradbury in 1976. For Bradbury, there is some blurring of categories, and the distinctions in his works are somewhat subjective, for he frequently has written multiple short stories about a set of characters or a subject, making minor edits or adding supplemental material, and calling the results a "novel". Although he is often described as a science fiction writer, Bradbury does not box himself into any particular categorization: ::"First of all, I don't write science fiction. I've only done one science fiction book and that's ''Fahrenheit 451'', based on reality. 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? That's the reason it's going to be around a long time â€” because it's a Greek myth, and myths have staying power." [http://weeklywire.com/ww/09-27-99/alibi_feat1.html] Apart from his fiction work, Bradbury has written many short essays on serious subjects concerning the arts and culture, attracting the attention of serious critics in this field. Bradbury was a consultant for the American Pavilion at the 1964 New York World's Fair and the exhibit housed in EPCOT EPCOT's Spaceship Earth geosphere at Walt Disney World.

Adaptations of his work
Many Bradbury stories and novels have been adapted to films, radio, television, theater and comic books. In 1951â€“1954, twenty-seven of Ray Bradbury's stories were adapted by Al Feldstein for EC Comics, sixteen of which were collected in the books ''The Autumn People'' (1965) and ''Tomorrow Midnight'' (1966). Also in the early 1950s, adaptations of Bradbury stories were televised on a variety of shows including ''Tales of Tomorrow'', ''Lights Out'', ''Out There'', ''Suspense'', ''CBS Television Workshop'', ''Jane Wyman's Fireside Theatre'', ''Star Tonight'', ''Windows'' and ''Alfred Hitchcock Presents''. An outstanding, well-remembered production from this period, praised by ''Variety'', was the half-hour film, "The Merry-Go Round," adapted from "The Black Ferris" and shown on both ''Starlight Summer Theater'' in 1954 and NBC's ''Sneak Preview'' in 1956. For ''The Ray Bradbury Theater'', first seen on TV from 1985 to 1992, Bradbury adapted 65 of his stories. ''The Martian Chronicles'' became a 1980 TV miniseries starring Rock Hudson. Director Jack Arnold first brought Bradbury to movie theaters in 1953 with ''It Came from Outer Space'', a Harry Essex screenplay developed from Bradbury's screen treatment, "The Meteor". Three weeks later came the release of EugÃ¨ne LouriÃ©'s ''The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms'' (1953), based on Bradbury's "The Fog Horn," about a sea monster mistaking the sound of a fog horn for the mating cry of a female. Bradbury's close friend Ray Harryhausen produced the stop-motion animation of the creature. Over the next 50 years, more than 35 features, shorts and TV movies were based on Bradbury stories or screenplays. Recently, Peter Hyams' film version of Bradbury's 1953 story, ''A Sound of Thunder'' (2005) brought an almost unanimous negative reaction from film critics. Reviewing for ''The New York Times'', A.O. Scott observed that "it illustrates the dangers of turning a lean, elegant short story into a loud, noisy, incoherent B movie." A new film version of ''Fahrenheit 451'' is being planned by director Frank Darabont; an earlier version was directed by FranÃ§ois Truffaut in 1966. In 2002, Bradbury's own Pandemonium Theatre Company production of ''Fahrenheit 451'' at Burbank's Falcon Theatre combined live acting with projected digital animation by the [http://sromagazine.biz/mag/one_hot_stage/index.html Pixel Pups]. Bradbury and director Charles Rome Smith co-founded Pandemonium in 1964, staging the New York production of ''The World of Ray Bradbury'' (1964), adaptations of "The Pedestrian," "The Veldt" and "To the Chicago Abyss."

Controversy
In 2004 it was reported that Bradbury was extremely upset with filmmaker Michael Moore for using the title ''Fahrenheit 9/11'', which is an allusion to Bradbury's ''Fahrenheit 451'', for his documentary about the George W. Bush administration. Bradbury called Moore "a screwed asshole" and "a horrible human being," but stated that his resentment was not politically motivated.[http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=1058&a=272062&previousRenderType=2] Bradbury asserts that he does not want any of the money made by the movie, nor does he believe that he deserves it, but he pressured Moore to change the "stolen" name nonetheless, but to no avail. Moore called Bradbury two weeks before the film's release in 2004 to apologize, but said that the film's marketing was set in motion a long time ago, and it was too late to change the title.

Honors and awards
Image:GeorgeRayLaura.jpg left|thumb|150px|2004 award recipient Ray Bradbury with [[President of the United States|President George W. Bush and his wife Laura Bush.]] *For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Ray Bradbury was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6644 Hollywood Blvd. *An asteroid is named in his honor (''(9766) Bradbury''), along with a crater on the moon called "Dandelion Crater" (named after his novel, ''Dandelion Wine''). *On November 17, 2004, Bradbury was the recipient of the National Medal of Arts, presented by President George W. Bush and Laura Bush. Bradbury has also received the World Fantasy Award life achievement, Stoker Award life achievement, SFWA Grand Master, SF Hall of Fame Living Inductee, and First Fandom Award. He received an Emmy Award for his work on "The Halloween Tree." *The "About the Author" sections in several of his published works claim that he has been nominated for an Academy Awards Academy Award. A search of the Academy's awards database [http://awardsdatabase.oscars.org/ampas_awards/BasicSearchInput.jsp] proves this to be incorrect. Two films he has worked on, ''Icarus Montgolfier Wright'' and ''Moby Dick'' have been nominated for Oscars, but Bradbury himself has not.

Trivia
* One well known irony is that Bradbury, despite writing about spaceships and interplanetary travel and having lived in Los Angeles for most of his life, has never driven a car. He attributes this to having seen a gruesome car accident when he was young. * Bradbury never flew in an airplane until the age of 62. He did enjoy a ride in the Goodyear Blimp when he was 48. * At the age of fifteen, Bradbury read Jack Woodford's book on writing, ''Trial and error (book) Trial and Error'', which had a large influence on his career. He also attributes his lifelong daily writing habit to the day in 1932 when a carnival entertainer, [http://www.raybradbury.com/inhiswords02.html Mr. Electrico], touched him with an electrified sword, made his hair stand on end, and shouted, "Live forever!"

List of Bradbury works

Novels
* (1950) ''The Martian Chronicles'' * (1953) ''Fahrenheit 451'' * (1957) ''Dandelion Wine'' * (1962) ''Something Wicked This Way Comes (novel) Something Wicked This Way Comes'' * (1972) ''The Halloween Tree'' * (1985) ''Death Is a Lonely Business'' * (1990) ''A Graveyard for Lunatics'' * (1992) ''Green Shadows, White Whale'' * (2001) ''From the Dust Returned'' * (2003) ''Let's All Kill Constance'' * (2003) ''It Came from Outer Space (novel) It Came from Outer Space'' * (2006) ''Farewell Summer'' (October 1)

Short story collections
* (1947) ''Dark Carnival'' * (1951) ''The Illustrated Man'' * (1953) ''The Golden Apples of the Sun'' (contains "A Sound of Thunder") * (1955) ''The October Country'' * (1959) ''A Medicine for Melancholy'' (contains "All Summer in a Day") * (1962) ''R is for Rocket'' * (1964) ''The Machineries of Joy'' * (1965) ''The Vintage Bradbury'' * (1966) ''S is for Space'' * (1969) ''I Sing the Body Electric! (Bradbury) I Sing The Body Electric!'' * (1976) ''Long After Midnight'' * (1980) ''The Stories of Ray Bradbury'' * (1984) ''A Memory of Murder'' * (1988) ''The Toynbee Convector'' * (1996) ''Quicker Than The Eye'' * (1998) ''Driving Blind'' * (2002) ''One More for the Road'' * (2003) ''Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales'' * (2004) ''The Cat's Pajamas: Stories'' * (2005) ''A Sound of Thunder and Other Stories'' In addition to these collections, many of the stories have been published in multi-author anthologies. Almost 50 additional Bradbury stories have never been collected anywhere after their initial publication in periodicals.

Screenplays and teleplays
* (1953) ''It Came from Outer Space'' (original story) * (1956) ''Moby Dick (1956 film) Moby Dick'' * ''Jane Wyman Presents The Fireside Theatre'' ** (1956) ''The Bullet Trick'' / ''The Marked Bullet'' * ''Alfred Hitchcock Presents'' ** (1956) ''Shopping for Death'' ** (1958) ''Design for Loving'' ** (1959) ''Special Delivery'' ** (1962) ''The Faith of Aaron Menefee'' (from the story by Stanley Ellin) * ''Steve Canyon'' ** (1959) ''The Gift'' * ''Trouble Shooters'' ** (1959) ''The Tunnel to Yesterday'' * (1961) ''King of Kings (movie) King of Kings'' (narration, uncredited) * ''The Twilight Zone'' ** (1962) ''I Sing the Body Electric'' * ''Alcoa Premiere'' ** (1962) ''The Jail'' * (1962) ''Icarus Montgolfier Wright'' * ''The Alfred Hitchcock Hour'' ** (1964) ''The Life Work of Juan Diaz'' * (1969) ''The Picasso Summer'' * ''The Curiosity Shop'' ** (1971) ''The Groon'' * (1979) ''Gnomes (movie) Gnomes'' * (1982) ''The Electric Grandmother'' * (1983) ''Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983 film) Something Wicked This Way Comes'' * (1983) ''Quest (movie) Quest'' * (1985-1992) ''The Ray Bradbury Theater'' * ''The Twilight Zone'' ** (1986) ''The Elevator'' * (1992) ''Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland'' * (1993) ''The Halloween Tree'' * (1998) ''The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit'' This list does not include adaptations by others of Bradbury's published stories.

Radio
* ''World Security Workshop'' ** (1947) ''The Meadow'' * ''Suspense (radio program) Suspense'' ** (1947) ''Riabouchinska'' (original story) ** (1948) ''Summer Night'' (original story) ** (1948) ''The Screaming Woman'' (original story) * (1968) ''Leviathan '99'' This list does not include adaptations by others of Bradbury's published stories.

Poetry
* (1975) ''When Elephants Last in the Dooryard Bloomed'' * (1977) ''Where Robot Mice and Robot Men Run Round in Robot Towns'' * (1981) ''The Haunted Computer and the Android Pope'' * (2002) ''They Have Not Seen the Stars: The Collected Poetry of Ray Bradbury''

Plays
* (1948) ''The Meadow'' * (1963) ''The Anthem Sprinters and Other Antics'' * (1966) ''The Day It Rained Forever'' * (1966) ''The Pedestrian'' * (1972) ''The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit and Other Plays'' * (1975) ''Pillar of Fire and Other Plays'' * (1986) ''Fahrenheit 451'' * (1986) ''The Martian Chronicles'' * (1988) ''Dandelion Wine'' * (1988) ''Falling Upward'' * (1988) ''Bradbury on Stage: A Chrestomathy of His Plays''

Children
* (1955) ''Switch on the Night'' * (1997) ''With Cat for Comforter'' * (1997) ''Dogs Think That Every Day Is Christmas''

Fable
* (1998) ''Ahmed and the Oblivion Machines''

Non-fiction
* (1990) ''Zen in the Art of Writing'' * (1991) ''Yestermorrow: Obvious Answers to Impossible Futures'' * (2004) ''Conversations With Ray Bradbury'' * (2005) ''Bradbury Speaks: Too Soon from the Cave, Too Far from the Stars''

Further reading
* William F. Nolan, ''The Ray Bradbury Companion: A Life and Career History, Photolog, and Comprehensive Checklist of Writings'', Gale Research (1975). Hardcover, 339 pages. ISBN 0-8103-0930-0 * Jerry Weist, ''Bradbury, an Illustrated Life: A Journey to Far Metaphor'', William Morrow & Company (2002). Hardcover, 208 pages. ISBN 0060011823 * Jonathan R. Eller and William F. Touponce, ''Ray Bradbury: The Life of Fiction'', Kent State University Press (2004). Hardcover, 320 pages. ISBN 0873387791 * Sam Weller, ''The Bradbury Chronicles: The Life of Ray Bradbury'', HarperCollins (2005). Hardcover, 384 pages. ISBN 006054581X

Documentaries about Ray Bradbury
* Bradbury's works and approach to writing are documented in Terry Sanders' film ''Ray Bradbury: Story of a Writer'' (1963).

External links
{{wikiquote}}
- Ray Bradbury - Official site
- Bradbury Media - Extensive coverage of work in film, TV, radio plus exhaustive short story cross-reference. * {{isfdb name|id=Ray_Bradbury|name=Ray Bradbury}}
- Ray Bradbury: Story of a Writer, film by Terry Sanders
- Illustrated guide to Bradbury's stories (English, Polish and Russian languages)
- Exhaustive bibliography at FantasticFiction.com
- Survey of Scholarship Detailed look at critical scholarship of Bradbury's works throughout his career.
- Two audio interviews of Ray Bradbury (1992 and 1993), RealAudio
- Videos of Bradbury on the Internet, censorship and other subjects
- Biography and Pictures Category:1920 births Bradbury, Ray Category:American fantasy writers Bradbury, Ray Category:American science fiction writers Bradbury, Ray Category:American horror writers Bradbury, Ray Category:American screenwriters Bradbury, Ray Category:American short story writers Bradbury, Ray Category:Autodidacts Bradbury, Ray Category:Baptists Bradbury, Ray Category:Chicagoans Bradbury, Ray Category:Hollywood Walk of Fame Bradbury, Ray Category:Hugo Award winning authors Bradbury, Ray Category:Living people Bradbury, Ray Category:Nebula Grand Masters Bradbury, Ray Category:Science fiction fans Bradbury, Ray Category:Swedish-Americans Bradbury, Ray Category:Unitarian Universalists Bradbury, Ray Category:National Medal of Arts recipients Bradbury, Ray bg:Ð ÐµÐ¹ Ð‘Ñ€ÐµÐ´Ð±ÑŠÑ€Ð¸ ca:Ray Bradbury cv:Ð‘Ñ€ÐµÐ´Ð±ÐµÑ€Ð¸ Ð ÐµÐ¹ cs:Ray Bradbury da:Ray Bradbury de:Ray Bradbury et:Ray Bradbury es:Ray Bradbury eo:Ray Bradbury fr:Ray Bradbury it:Ray Bradbury he:×¨×™×™ ×‘×¨×“×‘×•×¨×™ la:Ray Bradbury hu:Ray Bradbury mk:Ð ÐµÑ˜ Ð‘Ñ€ÐµÐ´Ð±ÐµÑ€Ð¸ nl:Ray Bradbury ja:ãƒ¬ã‚¤ãƒ»ãƒ–ãƒ©ãƒƒãƒ‰ãƒ™ãƒª pl:Ray Bradbury pt:Ray Bradbury ru:Ð‘Ñ€Ñ?Ð´Ð±ÐµÑ€Ð¸, Ð Ñ?Ð¹ sco:Ray Bradbury sk:Raymond Douglas Bradbury fi:Ray Bradbury sv:Ray Bradbury

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