AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT by Julian Brashears Name: Ray Bradbury (1920 - Present) Ray Bradbury was born August 22, 1920. As a young boy, he was exposed to The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Phantom of the Opera, many wonderful fairy tales, and the very famous Oz books by L. Frank Baum. Then, he discovered a magazine that would change his life forever. It contained many science fiction stories and Ray loved them. He began reading more and more. He started reading sci-fi books, and his favorite author was Edgar Rice Burroughs. When he got older, he began publishing his first science fiction and fantasy short stories, and illustrating his own work and drawing covers for magazines. His early published stories included Lazarus Come Forth, Morgue Ship, King of the Gray Spaces and Corpse Carnival. Then, Ray Bradbury began writing for mystery magazines, with mysteries such as The Small Assassin. Many years later, his now famous short story The Golden Apples of the Sun was published, and after that, his first collection of short stories was published, called Dark Carnival. Shortly thereafter came his phenomenal novel Fahrenheit 451. Soon, he had multiple books published, like The Martian Chronicles and The October Country and The Illustrated Man. He is one of the most prolific authors in the science fiction genre, having written more than 30 books and nearly 600 short stories, in addition to numerous poems, essays and plays. Ray Bradbury was also a very succesful screenwriter, adapting 65 of his stories to television for his TV show Ray Bradbury Theater. His short story I Sing the Body Electric! became an episode of the popular 1960s television show The Twilight Zone. Ray Bradbury's Pandemonium Theatre Company in Los Angeles, California has been developing and presenting productions from his books for years now, and is still going strong. Ray Bradbury has won numerous awards, and is still constantly writing and publishing new books today. |
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