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Ray Douglas Bradbury was born in 1920 in Waukegan, Illinois, a small midwestern town off Lake Michigan, just north of Chicago. When Ray was 14, his family moved out to California, where he graduated from a Los Angeles high school in 1938. Ray had been absorbing classic works of fiction like Tarzan and The Wizard of Oz as well as several comic books and movie serials since early childhood, so it was oly natural that he began writing at the age of 12. Although he wrote countless short stories in his teenage years, Mr. Bradbury believes that most were just mimicking the stuff that he had read as a kid. His first "real" short story emerged in high school as "The Ravine", a true story of his childhood fears of a dark, foreboding ravine in his Waukegan hometown.

Once out of high school, Ray did not attend college. Instead, he continued writing (he got his first science fiction story published in Super Science Stories in 1941) and spent countless nights working as a janitor in the local library while gobbling up every book in sight. However, Ray did not discover his unique writing style until he was twenty-two. While practicing a creative writing techinique of listing random nouns, Ray found that he had jotted down the two words, "The Lake". Immediately it conjured up childhood memories of a day at the lake where a friend, a blond girl, had gone into the water and drowned. It was a wonderful mystery story idea: death and drowning! He began feverishly typing, and by the end of the day he was in tears when he finally finished it. "The Lake" was published later that year in Weird Tales, and it has never been out of print since.

Ray continued to write short stories for several magazines, just so much that he could get by financially. His stories began appearing in just about every issue of Weird Tales, although the editors complained that the stories were not like the usual ones they got, and wished for something more traditional. Several of these stories, mostly horror, eventually accumulated into his first anthology called Dark Carnival (now The October Country) in 1947, the same year he married Marguerite McClure. Bradbury's reputation grew a little bit in the fantasy commmunity, and in 1950 he returned to science fiction to write The Martian Chronicles, a cautionary tale of Earth colonists invading and unknowingly destroying a peaceful, civilized Martian race.

In 1952, Ray Bradbury published his second novel, the best-selling Fahrenheit 451. Based on his short story "The Fireman", the futuristic novel examines book censorship and media power through the eyes of Guy Montag, a fireman whose job is to burn books. Fahrenheit 451 is still studied in classrooms today along with George Orwell's 1984, and continues to be regarded as a warning to future generations.

Ray Bradbury has also contribute much to the film world. The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, released 1953, was loosely based on Bradbury's story The Fog Horn. Although little can be seen of Bradbury in this sci-fi flick, it did instigate a life-long friendship between Ray and special effects guru Ray Harryhausen (of Mighty Joe Young fame). A similarly inspired picture was released soons after: It Came From Outer Space, before Ray was contacted by esteemed and arrogant film director John Huston. Ray was was given instructions to spend a year in Ireland to write a screenplay for Herman Melville's epic novel, Moby Dick. The process was long and painful, but it provided an eventual novel of both his experiences with the Irish and John Huston in Green Shadows, White Whale. Several other films have been made based upon his works, including Francois Truffaut's Fahrenheit 451 and Disney's tepidly received Something Wicked This Way Comes.

Ray has written short stories, novels, screenplays, essays, teleplays, theater scripts, and even an opera. He has had an unbelievable influence on the world of science fiction, fantasy and horror (remember Goosebumps' R.L. Stine? Well, his favorite book was Something Wicked This Way Comes). Every day, even I still find out things I don't know about him.

Here's a quick bibliography:

AWARDS:
-The O. Henry Memorial Awar
-The Benjamin Franklin Award (1954)
-The Aviation-Space Writer's Association Award
-Jules Verne Award (1984)
-Valentine Davies Award (Writer's Guild of America)
-Emmy award for his teleplay of The Halloween Tree
-Oscar Nomination: Best Animated Short (Icarus Montgolfier Wright)
-Science Fiction Hall of Fame (short story "Mars is Heaven")
-Balrog Award (1979)
-Nebula Award (1988)
-Prometheus Award (for Fahrenheit 451)
-Los Angeles Citizen of the Year Award (1995)
-Bram Stoker Award (1989)
-Won 7 of 19 Cable Award Nominations for Ray Bradbury Theater


CINEMA:
-Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (based on The Fog Horn)
-It Came From Outer Space (based on a short story)
-Moby Dick (screenplay)
-King of Kings (Orson Welles-spoken introduction; uncredited)
-Icarus Montgolfier Wright (screenplay, based on short story)
-American Journey (screenplay; shown at '64 World Fair)
-Fahrenheit 451 (based on the novel)
-The Picasso Summer (based on short story)
-The Illustrated Man (based on story anthology)
-Any Friend of Nicholas Nickelby is a Friend of Mine (based on short story)
-Something Wicked This Way Comes (screenplay; based on novel)
-Quest (screenplay; based on "Frost and Fire")


TELEVISION:
(highlights)...
-"The Halloween Tree" (animated, 1993)
-"The Martian Chronicles" (NBC mini-series)
-"Ray Bradbury Theater" (USA network TV series; based on 65 short stories)
-"I Sing the Body Electric" for The Twilight Zone
-Several Alfred Hitchcock Presents episodes
-Too many more to count.

Information compiled with the help of book biographies, personal knowledge, and the outstanding information resource that Richard Johnston has created with his The Ray Bradbury Page






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