Home > Ray Bradbury

He was born in Waukegan, Illinois, and his family moved several times, eventually settling in Los Angeles in 1934. In his family were many publishers of books and not surprisingly, Bradbury was a reader and writer throughout his youth. He graduated high school in Los Angeles but could not afford college. To make a living, he sold newspapers. He educated himself at the library and being influenced by science fiction heroes like Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers Bradbury soon began to successfully publish science fiction stories. He sold his first stories to pulp magazines in the early 1940s. His first book, the collection Dark Carnival , was published in 1947.

Notable works include:

• A Sound of ThunderA Sound of Thunder is a science fiction short story by Ray Bradbury, first published in R is for Rocket''. It was later reprinted in Planet Stories a pulp magazine, in January, 1954. It can now be read in several anthologies, including The Stories of Ray -a short storyThe short story is a form of narrative prose writing that is characterised by the number of words contained therein. Determining the actual length of a short story is problematic. A classic definition of a short story's length is that it must be able to b ( 1952Summary of notable events in 1952 . Events January events January 8 West Germany has 8 million refugees inside its borders. January 24 Sudden heavy snowfall in Algeria. January 24 Vincent Massey sworn in as first Canada-born Governor-General of Canada.)
• Fahrenheit 451Fahrenheit 451 ( 1953) is a dystopian science fiction novel by Ray Bradbury. It reflects several problems the people of that time were confronted with. On the one hand the censorship exercised in the 1950s by the US congress when as the result of hysteric ( 19531953 is a common year starting on Thursday (click on link for the calendar). Events January events January 7 President Harry S. Truman announces the United States has developed a hydrogen bomb. January 13 Marshal Josip Broz Tito chosen President of Yugosl) (adapted for the screen in 1966 by the French film director François TruffautFrancois Truffaut ( February 6, 1932 October 21, 1984) was one of the founders of the French "New Wave" in filmmaking, and remains an icon of the French film industry. He wrote, directed, acted in and produced over thirty films. Francois Truffaut was born)
• A Medicine for Melancholy ( 1959Events January-February January 1 Cultivars of plants named after this date must be named in a modern language, not in Latin. January 1 Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when forces of Fidel Castro advance January 2 CBS Radio cuts four soap operas: Bac, possibly 1960Events January-February January 1 Independence of Cameroon January 9 Aswan High Dam construction begins in Egypt January 11 Chad declares its independence. January 14 Ralph Chubb, the gay poet and printer, dies at Fair Oak Cottage in Hampshire. January 23)
• R is for Rocket ( 1960)
• The Illustrated Man ( 1951)
• The Martian Chronicles ( 1950)
• Dandelion Wine ( 1957)
• Something Wicked this Way Comes ( 1962)
• The October Country ( 1955)
• The Golden Apples of the Sun ( 1953)
• I Sing The Body Electric! ( 1969)

He has also worked on screenplays, including Moby Dick ( 1956) and King of Kings ( 1961), directed by John Huston and Nicholas Ray, respectively. Bradbury wrote the voice-over narration for King of Kings, notably Christ's final monologue, but did not receive screen credit. He has also written stories for The Twilight Zone, again uncredited.

His short story "The Foghorn", in which a sea monster mistakes a foghorn for the mating cry of a female, was adapted into the film The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms in 1953. Several of his stories were adapted by EC Comics in the 1950s, and later, a number of his novels were made into films. The Martian Chronicles was made into a miniseries starring Rock Hudson in 1979. Adaptations of his short stories were used as the basis for a television series, the Ray Bradbury Theater , along with his own screenplays, in the mid 1980s. A film adaptation of A Sound of Thunder is due to be released in 2005.