Ray Bradbury

." Predicting the future is much too easy... You look at the people around you, the street you stand on, the

visible air you breathe, and predict more of the same. To hell with more. I want better." -Ray Bradbury

By Page McmullenSteven Gyles

Early Life

• Born August 22, 1920 in Illinois.• Graduated from a Los Angeles high school in

1938.• Sold newspapers on L.A. street corners from

1938 to 1942,• He became a full-time writer in 1943. • wrote numerous short stories before publishing

a collection of them, Dark Carnival, in 1947.

The start of it all

• Bradbury's reputation as a leading science fiction writer was finally established with the publication of The Martian Chronicles in 1950.

Fahrenheit 451

• In 1953 he wrote Fahrenheit 451, which many consider to be Bradbury's masterpiece, the censorship set in a future world where the written word is forbidden.

• It is one of his best known works

Some awards

• Bradbury's work have won lots honors and awards, including the O. Henry Memorial Award, the Benjamin Franklin Award, the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement, and the Grand Master Award from the Science Fiction Writers of America. His work was also included in the Best American Short Stories collections for 1946, 1948 and 1952.

• His novels have been made into movies & t.v shows, such as ones on the twilight zone

• Some weren’t successful & he became disappointed in the way it was shown

• Ray Bradbury Theater ran from 1986 until 1992 and allowed the author to produce televised versions of his own stories.

What he has written

TV seriesNovels short stories screenplays radio dramas Playspoems essays

Today

• He’s still alive living in LA with his wife. • Still write daily

Critical Acclaims

• One of Bradbury's friends, Russell Kirk, defined his writing as man's power to perceive ethical truth, abiding law, and what we ought to be, amid the seeming chaos of life. Kirk said,"It is the strange faculty inexplicable if men are assumed to have an animal nature only of discerning greatness, justice, and order, beyond the bars of appetite and self-interest,"

More Critical Acclaims

• who came of age during the past 50 years has encountered at least a half-dozen of the titles in the following list of often-anthologized stories: "There Will Come Soft Rains," "The Whole Town's Sleeping," "The Illustrated Man," "The Jar," "The Lake," "The Wonderful Ice-Cream Suit," "The Smile," "Good-by, Grandma," "The Veldt," "The Pedestrian," "The Other Foot," "The Fog Horn," and "The Crowd."

Work cited

• ”Ray Bradbury” Ray Bradbury , 2001,Harper Collins Publishers, April 22, 2008 < http://www.raybradbury.com/index.html> Jepsen, Chris “Ray Bradbury online “ fantasies, futures & metaphors,2001,

• Space age city, April 23 2008, < http://www.spaceagecity.com/bradbury/index.htm>

QUIZ

• What is one famous novel that he wrote?• What did he do before he was published?• What did Bradbury do to help project his

novels on t.v?• What was the first collection published?