Ray Bradbury - 1920
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San Pedro High School in San Pedro, California
Read another essay on Ray Bradbury written by Illinois students Heather Kapp and Leia Smith.
I. Biography
Ray Bradbury was born in Waukegan, Illinois on August 22, 1920 and was the third son of Leonard Spauldin Bradbury and Esther Marie Moberg Bradbury. In the fall of 1926, the Bradbury family moved to Tucson, Arizona and returned to Waukegan in May of 1927. By the age of 11, Bradbury began writing his own stories on butcher paper. Ray's father worked as a telephone lineman and was laid off in 1932. Again they moved to Tucson and returned to Waukegan the following year. They finally moved to Los Angeles, California in 1934.
Bradbury graduated from Los Angeles High School in 1938. He worked selling newspapers on Los Angeles street corners from 1938 to 1942. His first story publication was "Hollerbochen's Dilemma" printed in 1938. His first paid publication, "Pendulum," was sold in 1941 to Super Science Stories. In 1943, he quit selling newspapers and began writing full time. His story, "The Big Black and White Game," was selected the Best American Short Story in 1945. He eventually married Marguerite McClure in 1947.
Bradbury's works have been included in the Best American Short Story Collection. He was awarded the O'Henry Memorial Award, the Benjamin Franklin Award in 1954, and the Aviation-Space Writers Association Award for Best Space Article in American Magazine in 1967. He also won the World Fantasy and Grand Master Awards.
Some of Bradbury's more famous works include The Martian Chronicles (1950), The Illustrated Man (1951), Fahrenheit 451 (1953), Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962), and Dandelion Wine (1957).
II. Literary Works (partial listing)
Dark Carnival (1947)
The Golden Apples of the Sun (1953)
"Sun and Shadow"(1957)
R is for Rocket (1962)
S is for Space (1966)
The Halloween Tree (1972)
The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit and Other Plays (1972)
Long After Midnight (1976)
"The Mummies of Guanajuato" (1978)
The Haunted Computer and the Android Pope (1981)
Death Is a Lonely Business (1985)
"The Dragon"(1988)
A Graveyard for Lunatics (1990)
Green Shadows, White Whale (1992)
Driving Blind (1997)
This essay was submitted by a student of Denise Marovich-Sampson, a teacher at San Pedro High School in San Pedro, California.