"Ray Bradbury is one of the immortals among us, whose classic works of
science fiction, fantasy and horror will be read a thousand years from now by
our descendents and the relatives alike of the planets of a thousand distant
stars." ( Dragon*con, website). He’s won many awards for his writings and
lectures, and I have no doubt in my mind that his writings will live on forever.
"It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and
changed. With the brass nozzle in his fists, with this great python spitting its
venomous kerosene upon the world, the blood pounded in his head, and his hands
were the hands of some amazing conductor playing all the symphonies of blazing
and burning to bring down the tatters and charcoal ruins of history. With his
symbolic helmet numbered 451 on his stolid head, and his eyes all orange flame
with the thought of what came next, he flicked the igniter and the house jumped
up in a gorging fire that burned the evening sky red and yellow and black. He
strode in a swarm of fireflies. He wanted above all, like the old joke, to shove
a marshmallow on a stick in the furnace, while the flapping pigeon-winged books
died on the porch and lawn of the house. While the books went up in sparkling
whirls and blew away on a wind turned dark with burning." (Bradbury,
Fahrenheit 451 67). The above is from Fahrenheit 451, a science fiction novel by
Ray Bradbury. The quote describes the main concept of the book and is very
appealing because it gives so much visual detail to the scene. This story is set
in the future where all books and other written materials are 02 out lawed. Guy
Montag’s job is to burn books and the houses which the books are hidden in. He
never questions his actions until he meets an old women who tells him how it was
in the past when people didn't live in fear and could read whatever they wished.
Eventually he does everything he can to prevent books from being burned and
starts wanting to learn more and more. "I thought that this novel exercised
great social commentary on society as a whole". It shows how important
books are to all. It also shows that some people feel that knowledge is a threat
to power and rule. Reading is a freedom everyone should enjoy. Ray Bradbury is
an American novelist, short-story writer, essayist, playwright, screenwriter,
and poet. He was born in Waukegan, Illinois on August 22, 1920. The third son of
Leonard Spaulding Bradbury and Esther Marie Moberg Bradbury. In the fall of 1926
Ray Bradbury's family moved from Waukegan to Tucson, Arizona, only to return to
Waukegan in May 1927. By 1931 Ray had begun writing his own stories on butcher
paper. In 1932, after his father was laid off from his job as a telephone
lineman, the Bradbury family again moved to Tucson but again returned to
Waukegan the following year. In 1934 the Bradbury family moved to Los Angeles,
California. Bradbury graduated from a Los Angeles High School in 1938. His
formal education ended there, but he furthered it by himself -- at night in the
library and by day at his typewriter. (Bradbury, Fahrenheit back of book). He
sold newspapers on Los Angeles street corners from 1938 to 1942. Bradbury's
first published story was "Hollerbochen's Dilemma," printed in 1938 in
Imagination!, an amateur fan magazine. In 1939, Bradbury published four issues
of Futuria Fantasia, his own fan magazine, contributing much of the published
material himself. Bradbury's first paid publication was "Pendulum" in
1941 to Super Science Stories. In 1942 Bradbury wrote "The Lake," the
story in which he discovered his distinctive writing style. ( Dragon*con,
website). By 1943 he had given up his job selling newspapers and began writing
full-time, contributing numerous short stories to periodicals. In 1945 his short
story "The Big Black and White Game" was selected for Best American
Short Stories. In 1947 Bradbury married 03 Marguerite McClure, and that same
year he gathered much of his best material and published them as Dark Carnival,
his first short story collection. His reputation as a leading writer of science
fiction was established with the publication of The Martian Chronicles in 1950
(published in England under the title The Silver Locusts), which describes the
first attempts of Earth people to conquer and colonize Mars, the constant
thwarting of their efforts by the gentle, telepathic Martians, the eventual
colonization, and finally the effect on the Martian settlers of a massive
nuclear war on Earth. (Bradbury, The Martian Chronicles 45)As much a work of
social criticism as of science fiction, The Martian Chronicles reflects some of
the prevailing anxieties of America in the early atomic age of the 1950's: the
fear of nuclear war, the longing for a simpler life, reactions against racism
and censorship, and fear of foreign political powers. (Bradbury, The Martian
Chronicles 45) Ray's fiction comes in both heavy-duty novel-length writings and
the handy, travel-size short-story writing for ease and convenience, and his
work is brilliant in both forms. His novels include The Halloween Tree, Death is
a Lonely Business, Something Wicked This Way Comes (Locus Award, 1987), A
Graveyard for Lunatics, Green Shadows and White Whale. His short-fiction has
been collected or included in nearly uncountable anthologies and collections,
including Dark Carnival, The Silver Locusts, Timeless Stories for Today and
Tomorrow, The Golden Apples of the Sun, The October Country, Dandelion Wine, A
Medicine for Melancholy, The Day It Rained Forever, R Is for Rocket, The Small
Assassin, The Anthem Sprinters and Other Antics, The Machineries of Joy, The
Autumn People, S Is for Space, Tomorrow Midnight, Twice 22, The Vintage
Bradbury, I Sing the Body Electric, The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit and Other
Plays, When Elephants Last in the Dooryard Bloomed, Pillar of Fire and Other
Plays, Long After Midnight, Beyond 1984: A Remembrance of Things Future, The
Haunted Computer and the Android Pope, The Complete Poems of Ray Bradbury,
Fahrenheit 451, The Stories of Ray Bradbury Volume 2 and The Stories of Ray
Bradbury (Locus Award, 1981). 04 Another of Bradbury's best-known works, the
novel Fahrenheit 451, was released in 1953 and is set in a future when the
written word is forbidden. Resisting a totalitarian state which burns all the
books, a group of rebels memorize entire works of literature and philosophy.
(Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451). Ray Bradbury's work has been included in the Best
American Short Story collections (1946, 1948, and 1952). He was awarded the O.
Henry Memorial Award, the Benjamin Franklin Award in 1954, the Aviation-Space
Writer's Association Award for best space article in an American magazine in
1967, the World Fantasy Award for lifetime achievement, and the Grand Master
Award from the Science Fiction Writers of America. His animated film about the
history of flight, Icarus Montgolfier Wright, was nominated for an academy
award, and his teleplay of The Halloween Tree won an Emmy. ( Johnston and Jepsen,
website). Bradbury's stories and novels have been adapted for the screen, both
large and small. The Martian Chronicles (1980 miniseries), Vino iz oduvanchikov
(1996 miniseries), Any Friend of Nicholas Nickleby Is a Friend of Mine (1981
TV), The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1953), Fahrenheit 451 (1966), The
Illustrated Man (1969), It Came From Outer Space (1953), It Came From Outer
Space II (1996), King of Kings (1961), Moby Dick (1956), The Murderer (1976),
The Picasso Summer (1969), Quest (1983), Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983),
and Trinadtsaty Apostol (1988). ( Dragon*con, website). Ray Bradbury's writing
has been honored in many ways, but perhaps the most unusual was when an Apollo
astronaut named the Dandelion Crater on the Moon after Bradbury's novel,
Dandelion Wine. Outside of his literary achievements, Ray Bradbury was the idea
consultant and wrote the basic scenario for the United States Pavilion at the
1964 New York World's Fair. He conceived the metaphors for Spaceship Earth,
EPCOT, Disney World, and he contributed to the conception of the Orbitron space
ride at Euro-Disney, France. Ray Bradbury is a winner of the Nebula, Prometheus,
O.Henry Memorial, Balrog, Bram Stoker, Benjamin Franklin, Aviation 05 Space
Writers and World Fantasy (Lifetime Achievement) Awards. He has won the Gandalf
Award for Lifetime Contribution to Fantasy (1980). A writer for TV, radio,
theater and film, his credits includeing a script for the film Moby Dick. His
show The Ray Bradbury Theatre is currently showing on the Sci-Fi Channel. Mel
Gibson will star in and direct a new remake of Ray's classic Fahrenheit 451,
slated for release late in 1999. He was creative consultant for the Jon Jerde
Partnership, the architectural firm that blueprinted the Glendale Galleria, The
Westside Pavilion in Los Angeles, and Horton Plaza in San Diego. Ray Bradbury
currently lives in California and is still actively writing and lecturing. (
Johnston and Jepsen, website).