Ray Bradbury

Biography:

Ray Bradbury, who died on June 5, 2012, at the age of 91, was born on August 22, 1920, and had a career that lasted more than seventy years, inspiring generations of readers to dream, wonder, and create. Bradbury was one of our generation's most recognized authors, having published hundreds of short stories and almost fifty books, as well as many poems, essays, operas, plays, teleplays, and screenplays. Among his groundbreaking writings are Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, Dandelion Wine, and Something Wicked This Way Comes. He received an Academy Award nomination for his script for John Huston's classic film adaptation of Moby Dick.

He adapted 65 of his stories for television's The Ray Bradbury Theater, and his teleplay of The Halloween Tree won him an Emmy. In 2000, he received the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, in 2004 he received the National Medal of Arts, and in 2007 he received a Pulitzer Prize Special Citation.

Bradbury would relate the story of meeting Mr. Electrico, a carnival magician, in 1932 throughout his life. At the conclusion of his performance, Electrico stretched out to the twelve-year-old Bradbury, touched him with his sword, and exclaimed, "Live forever!"

Later, Bradbury stated, "I decided that was the greatest idea I had ever heard. I started writing every day. I never stopped."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -