Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury, born in 1920, American writer of science fiction and fantasy. Bradbury’s works often blend science fiction themes with social criticism, portraying the destructive tendency of humans to use technology at the expense of morality. Bradbury is a prolific author who has written more than 600 short stories and numerous novels, poems, children’s books, screenplays, and other works during his long career.

Ray Douglas Bradbury was born in Waukegan, Illinois. He was an imaginative child prone to nightmares and frightening fantasies, many of which would later inspire some of his best work. A fan of motion pictures and the science fiction stories that appeared in magazines such as Amazing Stories and Weird Tales, Bradbury began writing regularly when he was 12 years old. His earliest work was published in small fan magazines, or fanzines, including one he produced himself. He sold his first story to a professional publication in 1941 and became a full-time writer in 1943.

Although Bradbury’s writing tends to be critical of technology, it also promotes the benefits of space travel and the creativity of science. One of his recurring themes is the clash between society and the individual in a technologically advanced civilization. His stories are also characterized by a poetic style and nostalgia for the simplicity of small-town life and the innocence of childhood.

Bradbury’s stories have been collected in numerous books. One of the best known is The Martian Chronicles (1950), a series of stories about humans colonizing Mars; many of the stories echo themes of the American frontier. Another well-known Bradbury collection is The Illustrated Man (1951), which uses the device of a man covered in tattoos to tell different stories.

Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451 (1953) is a dystopian vision of a future where television dominates society and books are illegal (the title refers to the temperature at which paper burns). A small group of dissidents resists the ban and sets about memorizing the great works of literature so they will not be lost to history. Along with Brave New World (1932) by Aldous Huxley and Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) by British writer George Orwell, Fahrenheit 451 is often cited by literary critics as an important portrayal of the potential for the all-encompassing governmental repression of individual freedoms.

Many of Bradbury’s works have been adapted for television and motion pictures, both by himself and by other writers. He also wrote the screenplay for Moby Dick (1956), a motion picture directed by John Huston and based on the Herman Melville novel. A 1967 film version of Fahrenheit 451 was directed by François Truffaut.

Among Bradbury’s other story collections are Dark Carnival (1947), The Golden Apples of the Sun (1953), The October Country (1955), A Medicine for Melancholy (1959), I Sing the Body Electric (1969), and Long After Midnight (1976). His novels include the semi-autobiographical works Dandelion Wine (1957) and Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962), Death Is a Lonely Business (1985), A Graveyard for Lunatics (1990), From the Dust Returned (2002), and Let’s All Kill Constance (2003). The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit (1972) is a collection of Bradbury’s plays and Ahmed and the Oblivion Machines (1998) is a children’s novel.

Much of Bradbury’s later work moves away from the science-fiction genre in style and subject matter. His later story collections include Quicker Than the Eye (1996), Driving Blind (1997), and One More for the Road (2002).

Bradbury has received many awards during his career, including the National Book Foundation’s Distinguished Contribution to American Letters honor in 2000.