Mini Biography
Ray Douglas Bradbury was born on August 22, 1920, in Waukegan, Illinois. He was the third son in the family. His father, Leonard Spaulding Bradbury, was a telephone lineman and technician. His mother, Esther Marie Bradbury (nee Moberg), was a Swedish immigrant. His grandfather and great-grandfather were newspaper publishers. In 1934 his family settled in Los Angeles, California. There young Bradbury often roller-skated through Hollywood, trying to spot celebrities.
Young Bradbury attended Los Angeles High School. There he was involved in the drama club and planned to become an actor. He graduated from high school in 1938 and had no more formal education. He learned from reading the works of such writers as Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoyevsky, among others. From 1938-1942 he was selling newspapers on the streets of Los Angeles, spending his nights in the local library and his days at the typewriter. At that time he published his stories in fanzines. In 1941 he published his first paid work, a short story titled "Pendulum", in the pulp magazine Super Science Stories, and became a full-time writer by the end of 1942. He published a collection of stories as his first book, "Dark Carnival" (1947). That same year he married Marguerite McClure (1922-2003), whom he met at a book store a year earlier. They had four daughters and eight grandchildren.
Bradbury shot to international fame after publication of his short story collection "The Martian Chronicles" (1950), which was partially based on ideas from ancient Greek and Roman mythology. Then he followed the anti-Utopian writers Yevgeni Zamyatin and Aldous Huxley in his best known work, "Farenheit 451" (1953). The 1966 film adaptation (Fahrenheit 451 (1966)) by director 'Francois Truffaut' , starring Julie Christie, received several nominations. Bradbury was not happy with the 1980 TV adaptation ("The Martian Chronicles" (1980) (mini)) starring Rock Hudson. His other novels and stories also have been adapted to films and television, as well as for radio, theatre and comic books. Bradbury has written episodes for Alfred Hitchcock's TV series, as well as for many other TV productions. His total literary output is close to 600 short stories, more than 30 books and numerous poems and plays.
In 2004 Bradbury received a National Medal of Arts. He was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6644 Hollywood Blvd. An asteroid is named in his honor, "9766 Bradbury", and the Apollo astronaut named a crater on the moon "Dandelion Crater", after his novel, 'Dandelion Wine'. Bradbury also received the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement, the Grand Master Award from Science Fiction Writers of America, an Emmy Award for his work as a writer on 'The Halloween Tree', and many other awards and honors. His works were translated in more than 40 languages and sold tens of millions of copies around the world.
Ray Bradbury is currently residing in Los Angeles, California. He has never driven a car and does not have one. He writes daily.
Mini Biography By:
Steve Shelokhonov
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