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The Life and Work of Ray Bradbury

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Whether fifty years in the future, or out in deep space, Ray Bradbury manages to escape reality and teach readers to rise up against the government and its censorship towards its people. Stories, such as Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, show how people do as the government say, but know that it is wrong; yet still do it. Although Ray Bradbury lived in times of tyranny and censorship, he pulls away from the social norm by denying the average way of life and shedding light onto the mind of many brain-washed Americans.

Ray Douglass Bradbury was born August 22nd, 1920, in Waukegan, Illinois. His father’s name was Leonard Spaulding and his mother’s name was Esther Bradbury. On September 27th, 1947, Ray married Marguerite Susan McClare and had four children. The four children’s names were Susan, Ramona, Bettina, and Alexandra. Bradbury wrote under many pseudonyms including, but not limited to, D.R. Banat, Leonard Douglas, and Brett Sterling (Commire 13). As a kid, Ray Bradbury couldn’t afford anything relating to science-fiction. He would often only write in private, rarely showing to people. Kids would make fun of him and call him “Flash Gordon” or even Buck Rogers. Once he turned twelve, he started to enjoy comics and the writing styles of Poe, Carter, and Burroughs. Among his science-fiction writings, he wrote political cartoons, or comics with “historical value” (Weller). Bradbury says, “I told all my friends I was going to go down to the nearest radio station to become an actor. My friends snorted and said, Do you know anyone down there? I said no. They said, Do you have any pull with anyone? I said no. I’ll just hang around and they’ll discover how talented I am. So I went to the radio station, hung around for two wee...

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...Gale Research Inc., 1995.

Johnson, Wayne L. “The Invasion Stories of Ray Bradbury.” Critical Encounters. Frederick Ungar Publishing Company, 1978. 23-40. RPT. In Short Story Criticism, Ed, Anna J. Sheets. Vol. 29. Detroit: Gale Research, 1998. Literature Research Center. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.

McGiveron, Rafeeq O. “Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.” Explicator 54.3 (Spring (1996)): 177-180. RPT. In Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Jeffrey W. Hunter. Vol. 235. Detroit: Gale, 2007. Literature Resource Center. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.

Sisario, Peter. “A Study of the Allusions in Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.” English Journal 59.2 (1970): 201-205. RPT. In Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Deborah A. Stanly. Vol. 98. Detroit: Gale Research, 1997. Literature Resource Center. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.

Weller, Sam. Ray Bradbury the Art of Fiction No. 203. Paris Review. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.
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