The future science fiction writer was born on August 22, 1920 (according to other sources - on the 25th of the same month) in Waukegan. A small town located in Illinois, next to Lake Michigan. The parents named the boy after the famous silent film actor Douglas Fairbanks (the full name of the writer is Ray Douglas Bradbury). When the whole country plunged into the Great Depression, the Bradburys moved to live in Los Angeles, where they were invited by one of their relatives.
Parents from childhood instilled in the boy a love of nature and reading books. They lived in poverty and could not provide Ray with a college education - Bradbury received only a secondary education. So for the next three years, the boy sells newspapers on the street.
Ray Bradbury
The beginning of creative activity
Ray Bradbury wrote his first short story at the age of 12. This work continued the famous story "The Great Warrior of Mars", one of his favorite writers - Edgar Rice Burroughs. Back in 1937, when he was finishing school, Bradbury became a member of the Science Fiction League of Los Angeles. It was then that the author began his first publications in journals.
With no money for a college education, Ray educates himself. The boy spends 3-4 days a week in the city library, reading a variety of books.
In addition to self-education, Ray Bradbury writes for hours, honing his literary skills. In late 1939 - early 1940, Bradbury is engaged in publishing the magazine Futuria Fantasy. On the pages of the magazine, he shares his thoughts about the future of mankind and the dangers that it is fraught with.
Already in 1942, Bradbury finished selling newspapers and was closely engaged in writing fantastic stories. Ray Bradbury publishes up to 50 works a year, literary earnings become the main source of income. The writer has always closely followed scientific breakthroughs, was a participant in two world scientific exhibitions in Chicago and New York.
Bradbury's passion for achievements in modern science and his vision of the future formed a further direction in the writer's work. Fantast wrote his stories and novels in the genre of technocratic utopia. In the future that Ray described, there were no wars, famines and lawlessness. In his works, he revealed the life of heroes, consisting of love and meetings, pain, separation and hope.
Personal life and world fame
In 1946, in a bookstore where he was a frequent visitor, the writer saw Margaret Maclure. She became the only beloved woman of Ray Bradbury. Over the next year, Margaret and Ray formalized their marriage. It lasted until 2003 - this year Margaret died.
Over the years of family life, the couple raised four girls: Bettina, Ramona, Susan and Alexandra. The first years after her marriage, Margaret was the main breadwinner in the family. The writer had not yet won worldwide fame and money was sorely lacking. But the wife put financial worries on her shoulders so that Ray continued to write stories.
Bradbury continued to write and in 1947 released his first collection, Dark Carnival. But the stories were lukewarmly acclaimed by critics. Three years after the publication, the famous "Martian Chronicles" of the writer are released into the world. It was the author's first successful project. Later, Bradbury admitted that he always considered The Martian Chronicles to be his best creation.
World fame came to Ray Bradbury after publishing the novel Fahrenheit 451. And for the first time the novel was published not in fantasy magazines, but in Playboy. In the novel, the writer shows a totalitarian society in the near future that fights dissent by burning all books. The work gained such popularity that in 1966 it was filmed, having shot the film of the same name.
The last years of Ray Bradbury and his death
Ray Bradbury believed that work prolongs life. The morning of the science fiction writer began with the fact that he wrote several pages for the next novel or short story. Now new Bradbury books appeared on store shelves every year. The novel "Summer, Farewell" was published in 2006 and became the final work in the writer's work.
The last years the writer spent in a wheelchair, after suffering a stroke at the age of 76. But, despite this, he was always in a good mood and with a great sense of humor. For example, when asked why Mars has not yet been colonized, Bradbury joked: “Because people are idiots. They only want to consume.”
Interesting facts from the writer's life
Ray Bradbury was an extraordinary person, his biography is filled with interesting and intriguing facts:
- At the age of 4, the boy watched the film Notre Dame Cathedral. In it, the forces of good were at war with the dark forces. The film so frightened Bradbury that after that he fell asleep only with the lights on, afraid of the dark.
- All his life, as the author himself claimed, he dreamed of flying to Mars. At the same time, all inventions not related to space caused him to panic - even with the advent of personal computers, he continued to write stories on a typewriter.
- Ray Bradbury created over 800 works. Despite the fact that the main focus of his work was fantasy stories, Bradbury wrote poetry and even drama. He also wrote several scripts for films and TV shows - "Trouble Coming", "Alien from Space" and others.
- There was a legend in the writer's family that his grandmother was a witch and she was burned during the infamous Salem Trial. There is no documentary evidence of the legend, but the writer himself believed in it all his life.
- Ray Bradbury never drove a car himself - he was afraid to get behind the wheel after witnessing two terrible accidents as a child.
- Bradbury was a devoted family man and lived his whole life with one woman. It was with her hands that the first copy of The Martian Chronicles was typed.
Ray Bradbury Born August 22, 1920 at 11 St. James Street Hospital, Waukegan, Illinois. Full name - Raymond Douglas (second name in honor of the famous actor Douglas Fairbanks). Ray's grandfather and great-grandfather, descendants of the first settlers - the British, who sailed to America in 1630 - published two Illinois newspapers at the end of the 19th century (in the province this is a certain position in society and fame). Father - Leonard Spaulding Bradbury. Mother - Marie Esther Moberg, Swedish by birth. By the time Ray was born, his father was not even 30, he worked as an electrician and was the father of a four-year-old son, Leonard Jr. (his twin brother, Sam, was born along with Leonard Jr., but he died two years old). In 1926, Bradbury had a sister, Elizabeth, who also died as a child.
Ray rarely remembered his father, more often his mother, and only in his third book (A Cure for Melancholy, 1959) can one find the following dedication: "To the father with love that woke up so late and even surprised his son". However, Leonard Sr. could no longer read this, he died two years earlier, at the age of 66. This unexpressed love is vividly reflected in the story "Desire". In Dandelion Wine, which is essentially a book of childhood memories, the main adult character is named Leonard Spaulding. The collection of poems “When the Elephants Bloomed for the Last Time in the Courtyard” the author provided the following dedication: “This book is in memory of my grandmother Minnie Davis Bradbury and my grandfather Samuel Hinkston Bradbury and my brother Samuel and sister Elizabeth. They all died a long time ago, but I remember them to this day.” Often he inserts their names into his stories.
"Uncle Einar" existed in reality. It was Ray's favorite relative. When the family moved to Los Angeles in 1934, he also moved there - to the delight of his nephew. Also in the stories there are the names of another uncle, Bion, and aunt Nevada (she was simply called Neva in the family).
“I started reading Dostoyevsky's works when I was 20 years old. From his books I learned how to write novels and tell stories. I read other authors too, but when I was younger, Dostoevsky was the main one for me.”
Ray Bradbury has a unique memory. Here is how he tells it himself: “I have always had what I would call an “almost complete mental return” to the hour of birth. I remember cutting the umbilical cord, I remember the first time I sucked my mother's breast. The nightmares that usually lie in wait for a newborn are listed in my mental cheat sheet from the very first weeks of life. I know, I know it's impossible, most people don't remember anything like that. And psychologists say that children are born not fully developed, only after a few days or even weeks gaining the ability to see, hear, know. But I - saw, heard, knew ... ". (remember the story "The Little Killer"). He clearly remembers the first snowfall in his life. A later memory is about how his parents, still three years old, took him to the cinema for the first time. There was a sensational silent film "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" with Lon Chaney in the title role, and the image of a freak struck little Ray to the core.
“My early impressions are usually connected with the picture that still stands before my eyes: a terrible night journey up the stairs ... It always seemed to me that as soon as I step on the last step, I would immediately find myself face to face with a vile monster waiting me upstairs. I rolled down head over heels and ran crying to my mother, and then the two of us climbed the stairs again. Usually the monster was running away somewhere by this time. For me, it remained unclear why my mother was completely devoid of imagination: after all, she never saw this monster.
There was a legend in the Bradbury family about a witch in their own lineage - a great-great... great-grandmother, allegedly burned at the famous Salem witch trials in 1692. There, however, the convicts were hanged, and the name of Mary Bradbury in the list of those held “on the case” could turn out to be a mere coincidence. Nevertheless, the fact remains: since childhood, the writer considered himself the great-grandson of a sorceress. It is worth noting that in his stories the evil spirits are just kind, and otherworldly creatures turn out to be much more humane than their pursuers - puritans, bigots and "clean" lawyers.
The Bradbury family moved to Los Angeles in the 1930s, at the height of the Great Depression. When Ray graduated from high school, they couldn't buy him a new jacket. I had to go to prom in the costume of the late uncle Lester, who died at the hands of a robber. The bullet holes on the belly and back of the jacket were neatly mended.
All his life Bradbury lived with one woman - Margaret (Marguerite McClure). Together they had four daughters (Tina, Ramona, Susan and Alexandra).
They married on September 27, 1947. From that day forward, for several years, she worked all day so that Ray could stay at home and work on the books. The first copy of The Martian Chronicles was typed with her hands. This book was dedicated to her. Margaret learned four languages in her life, and was also known as a connoisseur of literature (among her favorite writers are Marcel Proust, Agatha Christie and ... Ray Bradbury). She was also well versed in wines and loved cats. Everyone who knew her personally spoke of her as a person of rare charm and the owner of an extraordinary sense of humor.
“On trains ... in the late evening hours I enjoyed the company of Bernard Shaw, J.K. Chesterton and Charles Dickens - my old friends who follow me everywhere, invisible but tangible; silent, but constantly agitated... Sometimes Aldous Huxley sat down with us, blind, but inquisitive and wise. Richard III often traveled with me, he ranted about murder, elevating it to a virtue. Somewhere in the middle of Kansas, at midnight, I buried Caesar, and Mark Antony shone with his eloquence when we left Eldebury Springs ... "
Ray Bradbury never went to college, he formally completed his education at the school level. In 1971, he published an article entitled "How I Graduated from Libraries Instead of College, or Thoughts of a Teenager Who Went to the Moon in 1932."
Many of his short stories and novellas are named as quotes from the works of other authors: "Something Wicked This Way Comes" - from Shakespeare; "Outlandish Wonder" - from Coleridge's unfinished poem "Kubla (y) Khan"; "Golden apples of the sun" - a line from Yeats; "I sing the electric body" - Whitman; “And the moon still silvers the space with its rays ...” - Byron; the story "Sleep in Armageddon" has a second name: "And it may be possible to dream" - a line from Hamlet's monologue; the conclusion of Robert Louis Stevenson's "Requiem" - "Home the sailor returned, he returned home from the sea" - also gave the story its title; the short story and collection of short stories "Happy Machines" are named after a quote from William Blake - this list is far from complete.
“Jules Verne was my father. Wells is a wise uncle. Edgar Allan Poe was my cousin; he is like a bat - he always lived in our dark attic. Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers are my brothers and comrades. Here is all my family. I'll also add that my mother, in all likelihood, was Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, the creator of Frankenstein. Well, who else could I become, if not a science fiction writer with such a family.
Ray Bradbury's car number F-451 is nailed to the wall in Ray Bradbury's office, despite the fact that he himself never got behind the wheel.
“What about my gravestone? I would like to borrow an old lamp post in case you wander to my grave at night to say "Hi!". And the lantern will burn, turn and weave some secrets with others - weave forever. And if you come to visit, leave an apple for the ghosts.”
Unusual, unique, extraordinary - such epithets can be applied to the work of the outstanding science fiction writer Ray Douglas Bradbury. When you pick up his novel or story, you are surprised at the non-standard of what is written. With his heroes, you can fly away in a time machine into the distant past, step into another world, defeat the forces of evil and fight enemies. Over the course of his life, more than eight hundred different works came out from under the pen of the writer Ray Bradbury.
A talented child was born on August 22, 1920 in Waukegan, Illinois. His mother, Marie Esther Moberg, was from the large Swedish Moberg clan. The woman lost two children (a son and a daughter), and therefore overprotected Ray, not allowing him to get out of bed even with a cold for a long time. The impressionable boy, who had an amazing memory, bitterly received the news of the death of his brother and sister Elizabeth. This influenced his stories in the future, one of the main themes of which is the escape from death to fantastic, fictional worlds.
Incredible was the fact that Ray, unlike other children, remembered the first hours after his birth. Maybe this is due to the fact that he was born overweight. The boy clearly remembered the first snowfall, and how he was taken to the cinema for the first time at the age of three. The image of the freak in the film called "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" struck an impressionable child.
Ray's relationship with his father Leonard Spalding Bradbury and his older brother did not work out. The dissimilarity of characters affected: Ray Bradbury was very different in dreaminess and love of reading. Fantasy is one of the genres of the writer. In the images of heroes, you can often recognize members of his family. For example, Uncle Einar (his image is presented in the eponymous fantasy story by the writer Bradbury) actually existed. He was Ray's favorite relative, his uncle, who moved to Los Angeles with his family. The names of Bion and Aunt Nevada are also taken from real life in the stories.
From the pen of Ray Bradbury came out over four hundred stories. This is “Tomorrow the end of the world” (The Last Night of the World), and “Shore at sunset” (The Shoreline at Sunset), and “Smile” (The Smile), as well as “And the thunder” (A Sound of Thunder ) and many others. The author calls many stories and novels quotes from the works of other famous writers and poets: "Something Wicked This Way Comes" - from Shakespeare; "An outlandish wonder" - from Coleridge's unfinished poem "Kubla (y) Khan" ... It is surprising that the author of these unique creations received only a school education, although at school he attended a poetry circle, whose visitors, besides him, were thirteen talented girls.
With the choice of who he wants to become, young Ray decided at the age of 12. Persistently, step by step, he masters the difficult profession of a writer, despite the Great Depression that reigned in America.
The beginning of a career as a writer
His first publication was the poem "In Memory of Will Rogers", published in 1936 in a Waukean newspaper.
In the 1930s, the Bradbury family moved to Los Angeles. And at the age of 20, Ray began to read the works of Dostoevsky, which were a kind of textbook for a talented young man. The future writer saw a model of how to write novels correctly.
In 1937, Bradbury joined the Science Fiction League, an association of young writers. After a while, his first stories could be seen in cheap paperback editions. But among other works they stood out for their lyricism and depth of thought.
The first serious works of Ray Douglas Bradbury are his collection of short stories called "Gloomy Carnival", published in 1947, as well as the works "The Martian Chronicles" and "451 degrees Fahrenheit", which were published in 1950. The first edition of The Martian Chronicles won fans of the writer's talent: when he returned from a trip (to sell books, Ray had to travel from Los Angeles to New York), he was met by a crowd of people who wanted an autograph.
If you are not familiar with the famous popular science fiction story, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with its summary before reading.
By the way, the first copy of The Martian Chronicles was typed by the hands of a devoted comrade-in-arms and wife Margaret (and is also dedicated to her). With this woman, the author of unique fantastic works connected his fate on September 27, 1947. She attached great importance to Ray's creative work and therefore, from the day of her marriage, she gave her husband the opportunity to stay at home and create.
An erudite and educated woman, Margaret spoke four languages, knew the peculiarities of literature well and preferred some writers (among them Agatha Christie, Marcel Proust and, of course, her beloved Ray Bradbury). In the marriage of this wonderful couple, four daughters were born: Alexandra, Susan, Bettina and Ramona. Another serious work of Bradbury can be considered the book "Dandelion Wine" published in 1957, a novel that was compiled from separate stories. Unfortunately, its sequel, which was called "Summer, Farewell", was not immediately printed due to, as the editors claimed, "the immaturity of the text." This novel was published only in 2006.
What is the main achievement of Ray Bradbury? The fact that he managed to interest his reader in new genres of science fiction and fantasy, which had rarely been used in literature before. After 1963, Ray Bradbury, as before, continued to publish stories, but, in addition, he became interested in a new genre - drama. A consequence of this is the first collection of plays, The Anthem Sprinters and Other Antics, dedicated to Ireland, which was released in 1963.
Bradbury's passion for poetry manifested itself in the writing of three collections, which in 1982 were released in one volume. During this period of his life, the author created many novels and short stories that were far from the fantastic genre, and was published in various magazines.
An important component of the creative life was for Ray Bradbury and cinema. Raised on classic Hollywood movies, the science fiction writer calls his short stories, novels, and novellas "cinematographic." In addition, many screenplays came out from under his pen, in particular for the film "Moby Dick", which became the most successful.
From 1985 to 1992, the Ray Bradbury Theater TV series was released, which consists of sixty-five mini-films based on Bradbury's stories. Ray Bradbury is also honored by the fact that his work as a screenwriter was highly appreciated by the outstanding director Sergei Bondarchuk.
last years of life
When Ray Bradbury was already in his old age, he wrote either a story or a novel every day in the hope that this would prolong his life. The most recent major novel was published in 2006. At the age of 79, the writer suffered a stroke, as a result of which he was forced to sit in a wheelchair. But even in this state, the author was able to joke and maintain good spirits. “Imagine the headlines in all the newspapers in the world,” the writer answered reporters when he was ninety. – Bradbury is 100 years old! I'll be given an award right away." Alas, the famous writer did not live eight years before the centenary. He died in 2012.
Such is the fantastic fate of the prose writer and screenwriter, poet and science fiction writer Ray Bradbury.
Biography and creative activity of Ray Douglas Bradbury
5 (100%) 2 votesRead completely
So I read another book by my beloved Bradbury ... For me, it is stronger than Dandelion Wine, but weaker than The Martian Chronicles. At Bradbury's, I also read the collections "The Cure for Melancholy", "October Country" and "Dark Carnival". The latter is very similar in theme and atmosphere to the work, which will be discussed now. So trouble is coming, a dark carnival is coming to a small American town...
It was a little surprising that the events of the book "Trouble Coming" unfold in the same city where the events described in "Dandelion Wine" and its sequels take place - in the fictional Greentown. The city is hardly recognizable, there are no intersections with the "dandelion" series in heroes or places, and everything seems alien and gloomy. But the author quickly introduces the reader to everyone and disposes to new heroes.
The line of Willy and his father turned out to be close to me: for years I had a difficult relationship with my father: they never spoke frankly, did not talk heart to heart with each other. The ratio of our ages was the same as in Bradbury's novel, when the father at the age of 13 is almost an old man - both for himself and for those around him. She was critical of her father, his statements, actions, but in the process of reading the book, towards the end, I wanted to hug him, to say how much I love him - such an imperfect, but my own father. Thanks for that Bradbury.
When did I want to read this book? I took it with me on a trip to Yaroslavl. I visited the city for the second time and, when choosing a book for a trip, I remembered how I walked along the Volga embankment for the first time, looked at the bizarre and ominous clouds in the sky and the first phrase that came to my mind then was: "Something terrible is coming, trouble is approaching ...". It so happened that at that time in Yaroslavl I was reading The Martian Chronicles. And then the problem really happened. It was the death of a loved one who lived right there, in Yaroslavl. Returning to the city after 2 years, I considered the novel "Trouble Coming" to be the most suitable book for the trip. The same town, the same death, the same feeling of imminent trouble that once visited me here ...
What is the novel about? Who is it for? A novel about two boys, a strange and sinister carnival and its dark deeds... But this is clearly not a reading for teenagers. Many things they will not understand, they will not be able to appreciate. Bradbury put a lot of philosophical component into the novel. Separate thoughts, reasonings and ideas (expressed by the characters - mostly by Willy's father, Charles) are interesting and new not only for that time, but also for today. Much has been said about death, life, its meaning. You need to be ready to read, to have behind you a certain baggage of everyday experience, life wisdom, experienced losses. That alone is worth picking up a book with. Otherwise, there will be no sense in reading and sense from it.
According to Bradbury, based on the philosophy of his novel, EVIL comes into the world each time in a different incarnation and feeds on our tears, pain, sadness, sadness. By the way, I remember David Lynch, his "Twin Peaks", the embodiment of evil - the insidious spirit of BOB and the food that HE eats - garmonbosia (a mixture of human pain and suffering that looks like corn porridge). Sounds like you agree? And Bradbury makes it clear what is the weapon against this unknown EVIL. Perhaps simple and trite, but this is our joy and smile. Could this save Laura Palmer from BOB (oh, sorry, I'm all about my own, about sore)? As for Laura, you no longer know, but the smile and joy really saved the heroes of the novel. Evil (very likely temporarily, and very unlikely permanently) was destroyed by this.
A little chaotically, but it is said about emotions, sensations, observations. Now briefly about the translation. I didn't like him very much. From the very beginning of reading, I stumbled over the structure of sentences, individual words that were not entirely appropriate and correctly used in the context (for example, the unexpectedly rude “devoured”, and also the suddenly overly Russian “portly matron” - thanks for not being a “fat woman”, but that’s all same). There are many such examples. The name William / Willy cut to the heart. Old and wrong: I am exclusively for a more correct and fine translation - William / Willie (remember Shakespeare). And "William" - the translation option is still irrelevant. But it's not even about the name. I didn’t get the feeling of a well-organized, foldable, solid and easy-to-read text. Although I pay tribute to Grushetsky and Grigorieva: the author's style, the lively and familiar voice of his own uncle Ray, was preserved in their translation - it sounds, despite the obvious roughness of the Russian text. But I will try not to return to their translations. Even the title of the book is not translated correctly. A more accurate version is "Something terrible is coming." This is the title of the novel as translated by Zhdanov, who also translated The Martian Chronicles. More than worthy work: perhaps in the future I will also get acquainted with his version of the translation of the novel "Trouble Coming".
It seems like she didn't forget anything. The end of the review is near, which means it is a sin not to touch the end of the work itself. Don't expect a pure happy ending. The novel is kind of cut off. Lightness is mixed with bitterness: the main characters are safe and sound, evil is defeated, but the victims of the carnival remained its unfortunate victims, doomed to suffering. Among them is the sweet, innocent Mrs. Foley, the teacher of the guys Jim and Willy ...
As a conclusion, some numbers and estimates:
Reading time - about 3 weeks.
Book rating - 4.
Translation score - 3.
Author rating - 5
(WELL THIS IS BRADBURY!!!).
Time Machine
If you take three rays of the summer sun, the aroma of fresh grass, after a light breeze, add a pinch of childhood memories and a drop of magic to it, you will get the most delicious, most intoxicating drink on earth - “Dandelion Wine”. And if you ever want to try it, be prepared for the fact that it knocks you down after the first “sip” and does not let go for a long time. The aroma of carelessness, freedom and a smile that only childish spontaneity can cause will accompany you from the beginning to the end of the book. The writer masterfully opens his eyes to the magnificence of the most ordinary things, refreshing long-forgotten thoughts in the memories of adults. The book will not leave anyone indifferent, because "Dandelion Wine" has the most wonderful taste on earth, familiar to each of us ... the taste of childhood!
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"Time is a heavy burden. We know too much. Truly, we have lived too long. And you, in your newfound wisdom, must make every effort to make your life complete, enjoy every moment and someday, after many years, fall asleep calmly, knowing that your life is a success and that we, the Family, love you.
This short story is about an ordinary boy Timothy and his completely unusual Family. The boy is not happy to be different from them, especially when listening to the stories of invisible cousins, the winds that live in the houseboats, the ghost from the Orient Express and the Thousand-Great-Great-grandmother of the mummy Neef. Despite the usual boy, relatives love him and accept him for who he is. But even this family has its own problems.
Such a bewitching book about the supernatural that surrounds us, but we do not always see, about care and support, and about eternal life - does it make sense?
Read completelyRay Bradbury is an American writer, thanks to whom science fiction has taken its rightful place in the world of literature. He is the author of more than eight hundred novels and short stories, short stories and plays. But the most famous works are, of course, Dandelion Wine, and Fahrenheit 451.
Bradbury's biography is amazing. He never attended a literary course and did not go to college, but already in his youth he was an extremely erudite person. He began by writing poetry, and years later he received the title of "master of fantasy." He worked for many years as a newspaper salesman, and subsequently received millions in royalties for the publication of his books. And finally, Ray Bradbury, whose biography covers almost a century, was confined to a wheelchair for the last years of his life, but did not lose his sense of humor and only complained that he could not live to see his centenary. “But a hundred sounds more solid,” he said in one of his last interviews.
How Ray Became a Writer
Bradbury's biography began in the city of Waukegan, in 1920. We can say that the childhood of the future writer was happy. Mom used to read The Wizard of Oz and, oddly enough, the stories of Edgar Allan Poe before going to bed. His parents took him to the movies to see The Lost World and The Phantom of the Opera. Ray was surrounded by love and attention.
Observation, love for magical fiction, a penchant for reflection - all this manifested itself in the author of the philosophical story "Dandelion Wine" very early. Without these qualities, he would never have become a writer.
It is worth saying that Ray Bradbury, whose biography includes attempts to realize himself as a poet, and years of work in cheap literary magazines, was born into a poor family. And the lack of prosperity is not the best conditions for creativity. Nevertheless, he wrote his first work at the age of twelve. And it happened precisely because of the poverty to which his family was doomed during the years of the Great Depression.
Ray Douglas Bradbury, whose biography contains rather dark periods, read avidly from an early age. But my parents didn't have money for books. One day, after reading The Great Warrior of Mars and unable to buy Burroughs' next book, he decided to write a sequel. So twelve-year-old Ray became a writer.
Literary debut
If you try to set out a brief biography of Bradbury, you get a simple story about a talented boy from a poor family, living in a dream world and becoming rich and famous solely through hard work. A story like a fairy tale. But life was more difficult.
At the age of sixteen, Ray Bradbury published his first work (a brief biography in any reader mentions this event). But one could hardly call it a literary debut. The first published work was a poem. Bradbury then wrote several short stories that showed the influence of Poe. These works were published by cheap magazines, containing, as a rule, the creations of novice and immature authors. It will take many more years until Ray Bradbury finds his own style of writing.
A brief biography of this writer, included in textbooks on the history of American literature, certainly tells how he, in order to hone his literary skills, worked for many years, being published in various magazines. Every month he created at least five stories. At the same time, he found time to follow the development of science, visit various exhibitions.
Margaret
In 1946, Ray Douglas Bradbury met his future wife. The biography of every great man contains at least a small romantic story. Usually sad. Bradbury's biography is no exception. However, the love story of this prose writer is by no means sad. He lived a long happy life with Margaret Maclure and had four children. And, perhaps, he could not have made such a significant contribution to world literature, if not for the meeting with this woman.
"Martian Chronicles"
Writing fees did not bring Bradbury the desired wealth. Margaret worked hard in order to feed her family and give her husband the opportunity to be creative. Success came with the publication of The Martian Chronicles, which Ray quite rightly dedicated to Margaret.
"Trouble Coming"
This novel was first published in 1962. Bradbury originally wrote the screenplay. The film was supposed to be based on it. However, due to lack of funding, the shooting never began. The writer had no choice but to rework the script into a book, which was called "Trouble Coming". The characters in the story are children. The boys run away from home one day, they dream of getting to the carnival. They succeed, but during the holiday, the children witness an amazing transformation.
In the early sixties, Bradbury continued to publish short stories. But during this period, he was also interested in dramatic art. The first collection of plays was published in 1963. A few years later, the project "The World of Ray Bradbury" was launched on television. As you might guess, the show was filmed based on the plays of the creator of Dandelion Wine. Drama Bradbury was fond of until the early seventies. At the same time, a collection of poems was published. Bradbury published in various magazines, wrote stories, of which not all were related to the science fiction genre.
"451 degrees Fahrenheit"
In 1951 he published his main book Bradbury. The biography of this American prose writer, as it has already become clear, tells not only about fame and huge writing fees. Fame came to him a few years after the publication of Fahrenheit 451. At least in Bradbury's homeland.
A short biography, which outlines only the most important events in the life of the writer, certainly mentions the incident that happened to him during the Oscar banquet. At the solemn event, the writer met director Sergei Bondarchuk, who not only recognized the author of the famous dystopia, but also preferred talking to him to meeting Hollywood celebrities. The USSR was the most reading country, and a book about a society in which any aspirations to think critically are pursued turned out to be much closer to its inhabitants than to R. Bradbury's compatriots.
There are still many interesting facts in the biography of the hero of this article. But before talking about the last years of the writer's life, it is worth answering the questions: what is the uniqueness of Bradbury's creative style? What contribution did he make to modern literature?
Features of Bradbury's work
The biography and work of the American science fiction writer is a rather interesting topic. Especially because, in the opinion of many, he represented the most "non-American writer." Born and raised in the USA, Bradbury is often referred to as the "master of science fiction". At the same time, his literature tends to parable, fantasy. And he himself raised in his works questions that worried a few of his compatriots. The tragedy of a society whose members are deprived of the ability to create, to think independently, is shown in the book Fahrenheit 451. Yet Bradbury is perhaps the most optimistic writer of the last century. In most of his works, it is the joy of life or, as one of the critics put it, “the happy absorption of life experience” that plays the main role.
Last years
Even when the writer was confined to a wheelchair, he did not stop working. His works are published every year. Bradbury's last novel was published in 2006. At the age of 79, the writer suffered a stroke, after which he was partially paralyzed, but according to the writer's relatives and friends, he did not lose his sense of humor and presence of mind. In one of his last interviews, Ray Bradbury joked: “It would be nice to live to a hundred. Then I will immediately be given some kind of award. Just because I'm not dead yet."
Ray Bradbury died at the age of ninety-two on June 5, 2012. After his death, The New Yorker published an article in which this writer, along with Hemingway and Salinger, was named one of the most widely read American prose writers in the Soviet Union.