Ray Bradbury

an American writer ... see full wiki

rate

9 Ratings: +3.4

Bradbury was born in Waukegan, Illinois, to a Swedish immigrant mother and a father who was a power and telephone lineman.[3] His paternal grandfather and great-grandfather were newspaper publishers. He is also somewhat distantly related to the American … more

Advanced Editor

Post a Quick Tip
Write a Review

Share recommendations and tips on 'Ray Bradbury'

rate

9 Ratings: +3.4

You have exceeded the maximum length. Would you like to write a review?

1 review about Ray Bradbury

Showing 1-1 of 1

Display type:

Share

(0)

a Quick Tip by Scotman

in the Forbidden Planet - Sci-Fi Books & Films! community

Jul 29, 2010

Rating:

It was indeed a pleasure to sit in on the Ray Bradbury panel at the San Diego Comicon 2010. Ray has come to just about every San Diego show since its small beginnings in the early 1970s. Ray needed the help of his biographer to field questions as he was rolled in by wheelchair to say hello to all of us. Ray at 89 was very opinionated about the current state of science -- we never should have left the Moon, we need to return, make a base there and from that point colonize Mars and then the stars. Ambitious! He dislikes e-Readers. When a person asked about them, the biographer said, "OK, you asked for it!" and asked Ray the question. Books are to be held in the hand, they have memories, they have a smell and you can hold them, none of which happens with Kindles! He relayed stories like how he helped Rod Serling get started on The Twilight Zone.

The outpouring of love for this man and his contribution to others as they expressed their appreciation, the emotion was strong in the room, brought me to tears! When the show came to an end, Ray said (to paraphrase): "Get the hell out of here and go do what you love!" And we as an audience responded, singing happy birthday to Ray! So glad I made this. He turns 90 on August 22nd.

Was this helpful?

cpw1952

I just wondered if you'd seen the hilarious Ray Bradbury music video that's making the rounds on Facebook these days!

On August 21, 2010

show text editor

Follow this review

Photos

add a photo

Write a Review

Follow

Share

Rate More Like This

Edit Topic

Communities with this author

Forbidden Planet - Sci-Fi Books & Films!

A Lunch Community dedicated to Science Fiction!

About this author

Wiki

Bradbury was born in Waukegan, Illinois, to a Swedish immigrant mother and a father who was a power and telephone lineman.^[3] His paternal grandfather and great-grandfather were newspaper publishers. He is also somewhat distantly related to the American Spalding family, owners of the famous Spalding sports equipment company.^{[citation needed]} His central character Douglas Spaulding, from the novel Dandelion Wine, was reportedly drawn from this heritage. He is also reputedly related to the American Shakespeare scholar Douglas Spaulding.^[4]

Bradbury was a reader and writer throughout his youth, spending much time in the Carnegie library in Waukegan, Illinois. He used this library as a setting for much of his novel Something Wicked This Way Comes, and depicted Waukegan as "Green Town" in some of his other semi-autobiographical novels—Dandelion Wine, Farewell Summer—as well as in many of his short stories.^[5]

He attributes his lifelong habit of writing every day to an incident in 1932 when a carnival entertainer, Mr. Electrico,^[6] touched him on the nose with an electrified sword, made his hair stand on end, and shouted, "Live forever!" It was from then that Bradbury wanted to live forever and decided his career as an author in order to do what he was told: live forever. It was at that age that Bradbury first started to do magic. Magic was his first great love. If he had not discovered writing, he would have become a magician.^[7]

The Bradbury ...

view wiki