How the great-grandson of a witch became a science fiction writer and in the middle of the 20th century predicted TV plasma, ATMs and more: Ray Bradbury

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

In the Soviet Union, the writer Ray Bradbury was recognized back in 1964 - as the author of science fiction works. And his "Dandelion Wine" is now recognized as one of those books, without which it is impossible to imagine the literary development of a teenager. Reading books - both strangers and their own - shaped the writer himself, who became one of the most famous authors of the 20th century.

How a Newspaper Salesman and "Library Graduate" Became a Popular Writer

He was born in 1920 in Waukegan, Illinois. Father, Leonard Spaulding Bradbury, was a descendant of the first settlers in America, mother, Esther Moberg, is Swedish. The family kept a legend about the fate of Mary Bradbury, a distant relative, great-grandmother of the writer, who was convicted in 1692 during the infamous trial of the "Salem witches". As a result of that trial, nineteen people, men and women, were sentenced to death by hanging, but it was customary in the Bradbury family to talk about the fact that Mary Bradbury was burned at the stake.

Bradbury recalled an incident after which he made it a rule to "compose every day." He was twelve, he went to a carnival, where an artist named Electrico touched an electrified wand to Ray's nose (to achieve the famous "hairdressing" effect) and uttered the phrase "Live forever." The future writer felt something "strange and wonderful" then - and from then on he sat down at his desk every day, all his life. Bradbury, however, did not immediately decide on the profession of Bradbury - among other options, besides writing, there remained the same "magic", and also dramatic art.

When the Great Depression began, the Bradbury family moved to Los Angeles, and the boy found himself in close proximity to Hollywood, the holy of holies of American cinema. He entered the drama club, and devoted his free time to "tracking" celebrities on the streets of the city. The idea sometimes turned into success - Bradbury managed to see the brightest movie stars of that time, including Marlene Dietrich, Cary Grant, Mae West.

But young Bradbury did not have to wander around the city all day: he had to go to school, and then sell newspapers on the streets. There was no way out - the father's earnings were enough only for the most necessary. For the same financial reason, Ray Bradbury never managed to get a higher education, he simply did not have enough money to pay for his studies. Instead of going to college, he went to the library.

Three days a week, Bradbury appeared at the Powell Library at UCLA, and so on for ten years, until his twenty-seven. Books became Ray's main teachers, who, in his opinion, benefited a lot from real teachers: after all, they constantly "think that they know more and more than you."

How to compose your own future

And the first experiments in literary activity did not come from a good life. Ray, like many boys and readers in general of that time, was fond of mass literature, which was published in cheap magazines. Bradbury especially liked the novelist Edgar Rice Burroughs, the author of a series of works about Tarzan and John Carter. When, once again, Ray failed to buy the next novel, dedicated to the adventures of the latter on the vastness of Mars, young Bradbury, without despair, simply took and wrote his own sequel.

In the library it was generally convenient to compose your own. It was during this period that the story "Fireman" appeared, later turned into the most famous novel of the writer "Fahrenheit 451", about a society of the future, in which books are banned and destroyed. But before becoming a famous American writer, Bradbury, without much success and for very little money, was published in cheap magazines. The first published work was the story "Hollerbochen's Dilemma", this happened in 1938, when Bradbury was eighteen. And in 1939 - 1940 he independently released four issues of the magazine "Futuria Fantasy", with notes, reflections on the future of several different authors.

Such fantasies about the future were popular with the reader and sold well. But Bradbury's interest in the development of mankind and man was hardly practical. He was keenly interested in news in science and technology. At seventeen, Ray joined the Science Fiction League, and was happy to be among people with similar views and aspirations. In addition, in this society one could get the support of other writers. So, as a result of several successful meetings and a series of acquaintances, Ray Bradbury finally decided on a vocation - literature.

Science fiction, fantasy, detective stories and other genres in which Bradbury worked

Fame and money overtook Ray Bradbury after the publication of his collection "The Martian Chronicles" in 1950. Three years later, the novel "Fahrenheit 451" was published, and in 1957 - a work that is considered autobiographical - "Dandelion Wine". Although the writer was given the reputation of the king of science fiction, yet he himself did not attribute most of his works to this genre, since they described something that "cannot happen."

In addition to eleven novels, novellas, hundreds of stories, several plays, Bradbury wrote scripts for films (about three dozen), poems, and also released a television program called "The Ray Bradbury Theater", which showed mini-films based on the writer's works.

Bradbury was happily married to Margaret McClure, whom he met in 1946 in a Los Angeles bookstore and did not part until 2003, when he became a widower after her death. He himself died in 2012, the last years of his life moving in a wheelchair, but retaining both hard work and a sound view of the surrounding reality.

The world, which until recently could have been called the "future", did not seem to impress the writer too much. Despite the fact that he predicted some of the now familiar inventions in his old works, mankind, according to the writer, has taken the path of consumption, abandoning global goals like space exploration and focusing its efforts on creating useless and stupid entertainment.

However, Bradbury's task was never to predict the future, but rather to show the reader what should be tried to avoid. Whether it will be possible to avoid is still questionable. In any case, many of today's writers, such as Stephen King, named among the top-selling authors of 2020, do not deny the enormous influence of the books of Ray Bradbury on their work.