Ray Bradbury - books for fans of science fiction stories

If you like Ray Bradbury, list best books you can find in this section. Readers love this writer primarily for unusual worlds, which he creates, and exciting stories. He gained great fame by composing the famous dystopia “Fahrenheit 451”, a story with elements own biography"Dandelion Wine" and the science fiction series "The Martian Chronicles".

For those who have not yet encountered the work of this author, we suggest starting to get acquainted with Ray Bradbury himself, whose biography is full of interesting moments.

Ray Bradbury: biography of a science fiction writer

Ray Bradbury, whose books became classics during his lifetime, was born on August 22, 1920 in the USA. The beginning of his creative career is associated with the "League of Science Fiction." This organization originated in the first years after the Great Depression in America. His first publications were in magazines of dubious quality among mediocre science fiction novels by other authors. However, it was during these years that Ray Bradbury, whose list of best books would later become the property of American literature, honed his literary skills and created his own unique artistic style.

In the early forties of the last century, he created his own magazine, which was called “Futuria Fantasy”. As the title suggests, in it he talked about what awaits humanity in the near future.

In those years, Bradbury made his living selling newspapers and magazines. But soon, making progress as a writer, he left this business and was busy writing stories. Interest in science and technology allowed him to constantly generate plot ideas for science fiction. He published more than fifty such works of small form per year.

In 1946, in Los Angeles, Bradbury met his future wife. Margaret McClure worked in a local bookstore, and she was to become the only love in the writer’s life. From this marriage four children were born, and Bradbury himself dedicated many novels to his wife. The income from the stories was not able to provide for the family, so at first the family budget rested on Margaret's shoulders. But in 1953, the writer gained worldwide fame when the novel Fahrenheit 451 was published. Also, Ray Badbury, the list of books you can see below, created a great many scripts. This explains, in particular, the large number of film adaptations of his works.

Ray Bradbury is a legendary science fiction writer who managed to turn his childhood dreams and nightmares, poor eyesight (due to which he had to give up military service), as well as Cold War paranoia into a brilliant literary career that spanned 74 years and included horror, science fiction, fantasy, humor, plays, short stories, novels and more. We present to you a list of the 10 best Ray's books Bradbury, which we would recommend everyone to read.

10 Best Books by Ray Bradbury

1. FAHRENHEIT 451 (1953)

Inspired by the Cold War and the meteoric rise of television, Bradbury, a library stalwart, wrote this dark, futuristic work in 1953. His future world is filled only with televisions and mindless entertainment, people have already stopped thinking and communicating with each other, and such masses no longer need literature, so in this world Bradbury Firemen are needed not to put out fires, but to burn books. "This novel is based on real facts, and also on my hatred of those who burn books,” said Bradbury in an interview with The Associated Press in 2002.

He wrote Fahrenheit 451 in just nine days at the UCLA library. It was typed on a typewriter rented for 10 cents per half hour. So the total amount that Bradbury spent on his bestseller was $9.80.

2. THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES (1950)

In 1950, debut novel Ray Bradbury The Martian Chronicles brought him worldwide fame. Here he talks about man's militant colonization of a utopian Martian nation. The work is structured in the form of a chain of stories, each of which ridiculed the very real problems of humanity at that time - racism, capitalism and the super-struggle for control over the planet. Most likely with The Martian Chronicles, as with some other works Bradbury, the reader gets to know him as a child. Adults can easily see that all the author’s fantastic worlds are just our planet Earth, which is so amazing and mysterious, and which is destroyed not by strange creatures, but by man himself.

3. THE ILLUSTRATED MAN (1951)

This collection of 18 non-fiction stories published in 1951 Bradbury tries to look into the very human interior in order to describe in detail the reasons for certain actions. The increasing struggle between technology and human psychology, along with main story about a tattooed tramp, “the man in pictures”, connects the new collection with the previous work Bradbury. The writer took the character “man in pictures” from his previous collection “Dark Carnival”. “The Illustrated Man” is a collection of creative powers at their peak Bradbury. The ideas raised here will form the basis for the writer’s further fantastic philosophy. It took him a lot of effort to persuade the publisher not to call the collection science fiction. It is thanks to this Ray Bradbury managed to get rid of the status of a low-grade scribbler.

4. SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES (1962)

This fantastic horror film tells the story of two boys who ran away from home at night to watch a carnival and witnessed the transformation of Kuger (a forty-year-old carnival participant) into a twelve-year-old boy. This is what begins the adventure of the two boys, during which they explore the contradictory nature of good and evil. The title of the novel comes from the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare: “It pricks my fingers./ So always/ Trouble is coming.” This story was originally written as a film script directed by Gene Kelly, but he was never able to find financing, so Bradbury created a full-fledged novel out of it.

5. DANDELION WINE (1957)

This partially autobiographical novel takes place in 1928 in the fictional town of Green Town, Illinois. The prototype of this place is the hometown Bradbury— Waukegan is in the same state. Much of the book describes the routine of small-town America and the simple joys of the past, centered on the preparation of wine from dandelion petals. It is this wine that becomes the metaphorical bottle into which all the joys of summer are poured. Despite the fact that the book does not contain the supernatural theme usual for the writer, the magic itself here revolves around childhood feelings and experiences that can no longer be repeated in mature age. You should not try to read this book in one sitting: you should try it in small sips, so that each page can give you its own magic of your childhood.

6. THE SOND OF SUNDER (1952)

This story tells us about a passionate hunter who is tired of his usual safari. Therefore, for a huge sum, he goes back in time to hunt a dinosaur. But unfortunately for him, the hunting rules are strict, since you can kill only one animal, which would have died anyway due to natural circumstances. The whole story is based on a theory that was later called the “butterfly effect.” The essence of this theory is that small changes in the past can have disastrous consequences for the future. But, in times Bradbury this term was not yet known, so “A Sound of Thunder” was most often attributed to chaos theory in its time. In 2005, this story was filmed under the same name.

7. DARK CARNIVAL (1947)

This is the first collection of stories Ray Bradbury. “The Dark Carnival” contains perhaps the largest concentration of “dark” horror films and fantastic stories from all of Bradbury’s works. Which is not strange, since being the works of an unknown writer, it was precisely such stories that brought Bradbury money. Initially he wanted to call the collection “ Kindergarten horrors,” thus drawing an analogy with childhood nightmares. Scary, grotesque and distorted images populated these stories. There are maniacs, vampires and eccentric people who are afraid of their own skeletons. Ray Bradbury never returned entirely to this genre again, but the images he created at the beginning of his work resurfaced more than once in his more famous works.

8. SUMMER, GOODBYE! / FAREWELL SUMMER (2006)

This is the last novel Ray Bradbury, released during his lifetime, and is partly autobiographical. This is a kind of continuation of "Dandelion Wine", in which main character, Douglas Spalding, is gradually growing into a grown man. And during this period of growing up, the line dividing young people and old people becomes clearly visible. According to himself Bradbury the idea for this story came to him back in the 50s, and he planned to release it in the same “Dandelion Wine,” but the volume was too large for the publishing house: “But for this book, rejected by the publishers, the title arose immediately: “Summer, Goodbye". So, all these years, the second part of “Dandelion Wine” has matured to such a state where, from my point of view, it is not a shame to show it to the world. I patiently waited for these chapters of the novel to acquire new thoughts and images, giving life to the entire text,” said Bradbury.

9. DEATH IS A LONELY BUSINESS (1985)

The place and time of this detective novel is Venice, California, 1949. A series of brutal murders, undoubtedly related to each other, attracts the attention of an aspiring writer, undoubtedly copied from the very Bradbury. He and detective Elmo Crumley are trying to figure out what is happening. This is one of the first works in which Bradbury develops his abilities in the detective genre, and also shows his first attempts to tie the plot to himself. The author was inspired to write the novel by a real series of murders that occurred in Los Angeles from 1942 to 1950. Bradbury was there at the time and kept a close eye on the story.

10. THE GOLDEN APPLES OF THE SUN (1953)

This is the third collection of stories Ray Bradbury. In it, the writer decided to move away from the science fiction genre and focus on more realistic stories, fairy tales and detective stories. Of course, fantasy is also present here, but it is more limited to the background. In total, the collection includes 22 wonderful stories, including “Howler”, “Pedestrian”, “Killer” and other stories. By the way, “Golden Apples of the Sun” is dedicated to the woman who most influenced the writer’s creative path - his Aunt Neva.

Greatest glory Bradbury brought his fantasy, creative and at the same time contemplative, in which he imagined a future world inhabited by Martians with telepathic abilities, book arsonists and sea monsters in love. And this futuristic writer categorically protested against the transfer of his books into electronic form. Maybe, Ray Bradbury he was afraid that such a passion for technology was the first step towards his dystopian future.

So I read another book by my beloved Bradbury... For me, it is stronger than Dandelion Wine, but weaker than The Martian Chronicles. I also read the collections “A Cure for Melancholy”, “October Country” and “Dark Carnival” from Bradbury. The latter is very similar in theme and atmosphere to the work that will be discussed now. So, trouble is approaching, a dark carnival comes to a small American town...

It was a little surprising that the events of the book "Trouble is Coming" unfold in the same city where the events described in "Dandelion Wine" and its sequels take place - in the fictional Greentown. The city is hardly recognizable, there are no intersections with the “dandelion” series in the characters or places, and everything seems alien and gloomy. But the author quickly introduces the reader to everyone and introduces new heroes.

The line between Willie and his father turned out to be close to me: I had a difficult relationship with my father for years: we never spoke frankly, did not talk to each other heart to heart. The ratio of our ages was the same as in Bradbury’s novel, when the father of a 13-year-old child is almost an old man - both for himself and for those around him. I was critical of my father, his statements, actions, but in the process of reading the book, towards the end, I wanted to hug him, say how much I love him - such an imperfect, but my own father. Thanks Bradbury for this.

When did I want to read this book? I took her with me on a trip to Yaroslavl. I visited the city for the second time and when choosing a book for the trip, I remembered how for the first time I walked along the Volga embankment, looked at the bizarre and ominous clouds in the sky and the first phrase that came to my mind then was: “Something terrible is coming, trouble is approaching ...". It so happened that then in Yaroslavl I was reading “The Martian Chronicles”. And then the disaster really happened. It was death loved one, who lived exactly there, in Yaroslavl. Returning to the city after 2 years, I considered the novel “Trouble Is Coming” to be the most suitable book for the trip. Also a town, also death, also a feeling of imminent disaster that once visited me here...

What is the novel about? Who is it for? A novel about two boys, a strange and sinister carnival and its dark affairs... But this is clearly not reading material for teenagers. They will not understand many things and will not be able to appreciate them. Bradbury put a lot of philosophical component into the novel. Some thoughts, reasoning and ideas (expressed by the characters - mainly Willie's father, Charles) are interesting and new not only for that time, but also for today. Much has been said about death, life, its meaning. You need to be ready to read, have some baggage of life experience, life wisdom, and experienced losses. This alone is worth picking up the book for. Otherwise there will be no point in reading and there will be no sense from it.

According to Bradbury, based on the philosophy of his novel, EVIL comes into the world each time in a different incarnation and feeds on our tears, pain, sadness, sadness. Very opportunely, I remember David Lynch, his “Twin Peaks”, the embodiment of evil - the insidious spirit BOB and the food that HE eats - garmonbozia (a mixture of human pain and suffering, outwardly reminiscent of corn porridge). Looks like you'll agree? And Bradbury makes it clear that he is a weapon against this unknown EVIL. It may be simple and banal, but this is our joy and smile. Could this have saved Laura Palmer from BOB (oh, sorry, I’m talking about my own, painful issues)? You won’t know about Laura anymore, but the characters in the novel were truly saved by their smile and joy. Evil (very likely temporarily, and very unlikely forever) was destroyed precisely by this.

It’s a little chaotic, but it talks about emotions, sensations, and observations. Now briefly about the translation. I didn't really like him. From the very beginning of reading, I stumbled over the structure of sentences, individual words that were not entirely appropriate and correctly used in the context (for example, the unexpectedly rude “devoured”, and also the suddenly too Russian “burly matron” - thank you for not being a “fat woman”, but that’s all same). There are many such examples. The name William/Willy struck a chord in my heart. Old and incorrect: I am exclusively for a more correct and harmonious version of the translation - William/Willie (remember Shakespeare). And “William” is still an irrelevant translation option. But it's not even about the name. I didn’t get the feeling that the text was neat, coherent, coherent, and easy to read. Although I give Grushetsky and Grigorieva their due: the author’s style, the lively and familiar voice of his own Uncle Ray, was preserved in their translation - it sounds despite the obvious roughness of the Russian text. But I will try not to return to their translations. Even the title of the book is not translated entirely correctly. A more accurate option is “Something terrible is coming.” This is the title of the novel translated by Zhdanov, who also translated The Martian Chronicles. More than decent job: Perhaps in the future I will get acquainted with his version of the translation of the novel “Trouble Is Coming.”

It seems like I haven’t forgotten anything. The end of the review is near, which means it would be a shame not to touch on the end of the work itself. Don't expect a pure happy ending. The novel seems to end altogether. Lightness is mixed with bitterness: the main characters are safe and sound, evil is defeated, but the victims of the carnival remain its unfortunate victims, doomed to suffer. Among them is the sweet, innocent Mrs. Foley, the teacher of the children Jim and Willie...

As a conclusion, some numbers and estimates:
Reading time is about 3 weeks.
Book rating - 4.
Translation rating - 3.
Author rating - 5
(WELL IT'S BRADBURY!!!).

Time Machine

If you take three rays of summer sun, the aroma of fresh grass, after a light blow of wind, add a pinch of childhood memories and a drop of magic, you will get the most delicious, most intoxicating drink on earth - “Dandelion Wine”. And if you ever want to try it, be prepared for the fact that it will knock you off your feet after the first “sip” and will not let go for a long time. The aroma of carelessness, freedom and a smile that only childish spontaneity can evoke will accompany you from the beginning to the end of the book. The writer masterfully opens his eyes to the magnificence of the most ordinary things, refreshing long-forgotten thoughts in the memories of adults. The book will not leave anyone indifferent, because “Dandelion Wine” has the most wonderful taste on earth, familiar to each of us... the taste of childhood!

"Time is a heavy burden. We know too much. Truly, we have lived too long. And you, in your newfound wisdom, must make every effort to make your life complete, enjoy every moment and someday, many years from now, sleep calm, knowing that your life is a success and that we, the Family, love you."

This short story is about an ordinary boy Timothy and his completely unusual Family. The boy is not happy to be different from them, especially listening to the stories of invisible cousins, the winds that live in households, the ghost from the Orient Express and the Thousand-Great-Great-Grandmother of the mummy Nif. Despite the boy's ordinary appearance, his relatives love him and accept him for who he is. But this family also has its own problems.

Such a fascinating book about the supernatural that surrounds us, but we don’t always see, about care and support, and about eternal life - does it make sense?

Ray Bradbury born August 22, 1920 at 11 St. James Street Hospital in Waukegan, Illinois. Full name - Raymond Douglas (middle name in honor of the famous actor Douglas Fairbanks). Ray's grandfather and great-grandfather, descendants of the first English settlers who sailed to America in 1630, published two Illinois newspapers at the end of the 19th century (in the province this means a certain position in society and fame). Father: Leonard Spaulding Bradbury. Mother - Marie Esther Moberg, Swedish by birth. By the time Ray was born, his father was not even 30 years old, he worked as an electrician and was the father of a four-year-old son, Leonard Jr. (his twin brother Sam was born with Leonard Jr., but he died when he was two years old). In 1926, Bradbury had a sister, Elizabeth, who also died as a child.

Ray rarely remembered his father, more often his mother, and only in his third book (A Cure for Melancholy, 1959) can one find the following dedication: “To my father with love, who woke up so late and even surprised his son”. However, Leonard Sr. could no longer read this; he died two years earlier, at the age of 66. This unexpressed love was vividly reflected in the story “Desire.” In Dandelion Wine, which is essentially a book of childhood memoirs, the main adult character is named Leonard Spaulding. The author provided the collection of poems “When the Elephants Last Bloomed in the Courtyard” with the following dedication: “This book is in memory of my grandmother Minnie Davis Bradbury, and my grandfather Samuel Hinxton Bradbury, and my brother Samuel, and my sister Elizabeth. They all died a long time ago, but I still remember them to this day.” He often inserts their names into his stories.

“Uncle Einar” really existed. It was Ray's favorite relative. When the family moved to Los Angeles in 1934, he moved there too - to the delight of his nephew. Also in the stories are the names of another uncle, Bion, and Aunt Nevada (she was simply called Neva in the family).

“I started reading Dostoevsky’s works when I was 20 years old. From his books I learned how to write novels and tell stories. I read other authors, but when I was younger, Dostoevsky was the main one for me.”

Ray Bradbury has a unique memory. Here is how he talks about it himself: “I have always had what I would call an “almost complete mental return” to the hour of birth. I remember cutting the umbilical cord, I remember sucking my mother’s breast for the first time. The nightmares that usually await a newborn are included in my mental cheat sheet from the very first weeks of life. I know, I know, it’s impossible, most people don’t remember anything like that. And psychologists say that children are born not fully developed, only after a few days or even weeks they acquire the ability to see, hear, know. But I saw, heard, knew...” (remember the story “The Little Killer”). He clearly remembers the first snowfall of his life. A later memory is about how, still three years old, his parents took him to the cinema for the first time. The acclaimed silent film “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” with Lon Chaney in the title role was on, and the image of the freak struck little Ray to the core.

“My early impressions are usually associated with the picture that still stands before my eyes: a terrible night journey up the stairs... It always seemed to me that as soon as I stepped on the last step, I would immediately find myself face to face with a vile monster waiting me upstairs. I rolled down head over heels and ran crying to my mother, and then the two of us climbed the steps again. Usually the monster would have run away somewhere by this time. It remains unclear to me why my mother was completely devoid of imagination: after all, she never saw this monster even once.”

In the Bradbury family there was a legend about a witch in their own family tree - a great-great-great-grandmother, allegedly burned at the famous Salem witch trials in 1692. True, the convicts were hanged there, and the name Mary Bradbury on the list of those involved in the case could have been a mere coincidence. Nevertheless, the fact remains: since childhood, the writer considered himself the great-grandson of a witch. It is worth noting that in his stories the evil spirits are just good, and otherworldly creatures turn out to be much more humane than their pursuers - Puritans, bigots and “clean” legalists.

The Bradbury family moved to Los Angeles in the 30s, at the height of the Great Depression. When Ray graduated high school, they couldn’t buy him a new jacket. I had to go to prom dressed as Lester's late uncle, who died at the hands of a robber. The bullet holes on the stomach and back of the jacket were carefully mended.

All his life Bradbury lived with one woman - Margaret (Marguerite McClure). Together they had four daughters (Tina, Ramona, Susan and Alexandra).

They married on September 27, 1947. From that day on, for several years, she worked all day long so that Ray could stay home and work on his books. The first copy of The Martian Chronicles was typed with her hands. This book was dedicated to her. Margaret studied four languages ​​during her life, and was also known as a literature connoisseur (her favorite writers include Marcel Proust, Agatha Christie and... Ray Bradbury). She also had a good knowledge of wines and loved cats. Everyone who knew her personally spoke of her as a person of rare charm and the owner of an extraordinary sense of humor.

“On the trains... in the late evening hours I enjoyed the company of Bernard Shaw, J. K. Chesterton and Charles Dickens - my old friends, following me everywhere, invisible but tangible; silent, but constantly excited... Sometimes Aldous Huxley sat down with us, blind, but inquisitive and wise. Richard III often traveled with me, he talked about murder, elevating it to a virtue. Somewhere in the middle of Kansas at midnight I buried Caesar, and Mark Antony shone with his eloquence as we left Eldebury Springs...”

Ray Bradbury never went to college; he formally completed his education at the high school level. In 1971, his article was published entitled “How I graduated from libraries instead of college, or Thoughts of a teenager who walked on the moon in 1932.”

Many of his stories and novellas are named after quotes from the works of other authors: “Something Wicked This Way Comes” - from Shakespeare; “A Strange Wonder” - from Coleridge’s unfinished poem “Kubla(y) Khan”; “The golden apples of the sun” is a line from Yeats; " Electric body I sing" - Whitman; “And the moon still silvers the expanse with its rays...” - Byron; the story “Asleep at Armageddon” has a second title: “And it may be possible to dream” - a line from Hamlet’s monologue; the completion of Robert Louis Stevenson's "Requiem" - "Home has the sailor returned, home has he returned from the sea" - also gave the story its title; the story and collection of short stories “Machines of Happiness” are named after a quote from William Blake - this list is far from complete.

“Jules Verne was my father. Wells - a wise uncle. Edgar Allan Poe was my cousin; he's like bat- always lived in our dark attic. Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers are my brothers and comrades. Here you have all my relatives. I will also add that my mother, in all likelihood, was Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, the creator of Frankenstein. Well, who else could I become if not a science fiction writer with such a family.”

In Ray Bradbury's office, the license plate "F-451" is nailed to the wall, despite the fact that he himself has never driven the car.

“What about my gravestone? I'd like to borrow an old lamppost in case you wander by my grave at night to say "Hello!" And the lantern will burn, turn and weave one secret with another - weave it forever. And if you come to visit, leave an apple for the ghosts.”

The future science fiction writer was born on August 22, 1920 (according to other sources - on the 25th of the same month) in Waukegan. The small town is located in Illinois, next to Lake Michigan. The parents named the boy after the famous silent film actor Douglas Fairbanks (full name of the writer Ray Douglas Bradbury). When the whole country plunged into the Great Depression, the Bradburys moved to Los Angeles, where they were invited by one of their relatives.

From childhood, his parents instilled in the boy a love of nature and reading books. They lived poorly and could not provide Ray with a college education - Bradbury received only a secondary education. Therefore, for the next three years, the boy sells newspapers on the street.

Ray Bradbury

The beginning of creative activity

Ray Bradbury wrote his first story at age 12. This work continued the famous story “The Great Warrior of Mars,” by one of his favorite writers, Edgar Rice Burroughs. Back in 1937, when he was finishing school, Bradbury became a member of the Los Angeles Science Fiction League. It was then that the author began his first publications in magazines.

Without money for a college education, Ray educates himself. The boy spends 3-4 days a week in the city library, reading a variety of books.

In addition to self-education, Ray Bradbury spends hours writing works, honing his literary skills. At the end of 1939 - beginning of 1940, Bradbury published the Futuria Fantasy magazine. On the pages of the magazine, he shares his thoughts about the future of humanity and the dangers it poses.

Already in 1942, Bradbury stopped selling newspapers and began writing science fiction stories. Ray Bradbury publishes up to 50 works a year; literary earnings become the main source of income. The writer always closely followed scientific breakthroughs and was a participant in two world scientific exhibitions in Chicago and New York.

Bradbury's passion for achievements in modern science and his vision of the future shaped the further direction in the writer’s work. The science fiction writer wrote his stories and novels in the genre of technocratic utopia. In the future that Ray described, there were no wars, famines or lawlessness. In his works, he revealed the life of the heroes, consisting of love and meetings, pain, separation and hope.

Personal life and worldwide fame

In 1946, in a bookstore where he was a frequent visitor, the writer saw Margaret McClure. She became the only beloved woman of Ray Bradbury. Over the next year, Margaret and Ray consummated their marriage. It lasted until 2003 - this year Margaret died.

Over the years family life, the couple raised four girls: Bettina, Ramona, Susan and Alexandra. For the first years after her marriage, Margaret was the main breadwinner in the family. The writer had not yet won worldwide fame and there was a catastrophic lack of money. But his wife put financial worries on her shoulders so that Ray could continue to write stories.

Bradbury continued to write works and in 1947 released his first collection, Dark Carnival. But the stories were poorly received by critics. Three years after publication, the famous “Martian Chronicles” of the writer are released to the world. This was the author's first successful project. Bradbury later admitted that he always considered The Martian Chronicles his best creation.

Ray Bradbury gained worldwide fame after publishing the novel Fahrenheit 451. Moreover, the novel was published for the first time not in science fiction magazines, but in Playboy. In the novel, the writer shows a totalitarian society in the near future, which fights dissent by burning all books. The work gained such popularity that in 1966 it was adapted into a film of the same name.

The last years of Ray Bradbury and his death

Ray Bradbury believed that work prolongs life. The science fiction writer's morning began with him writing several pages for his next novel or story. Now new Bradbury books appeared on store shelves every year. The novel “Farewell Summer” was published in 2006 and became the final work in the writer’s work.

Last years The writer spent his time in a wheelchair after suffering a stroke at the age of 76. But despite this, he was always in good mood and with a great sense of humor. For example, when asked why Mars had not been colonized until now, Bradbury joked: “Because people are idiots. They only want to engage in consumption.”

Interesting facts from the life of the writer

Ray Bradbury was an extraordinary person; his biography is filled with interesting and intriguing facts:

• At the age of 4, the boy watched the film “Notre Dame de Paris.” In it, the forces of good waged war on the forces of darkness. The film scared Bradbury so much that after that he only fell asleep with the lights on, afraid of the dark.
• All his life, as the author himself stated, he dreamed of flying to Mars. At the same time, all inventions not related to space caused him panic - even with the advent of personal computers he continued to write stories on a typewriter.
• Ray Bradbury created more than 800 works. Despite the fact that the main focus of his work was fantasy stories, Bradbury wrote poetry and even drama. He also wrote several scripts for films and TV series – “Trouble Is Coming”, “Alien from Outer Space” and others.
• There was a legend in the writer’s family that his grandmother was a witch and she was burned during the infamous “Salem Trial.” There is no documentary evidence of the legend, but the writer himself believed in it all his life.
• Ray Bradbury never drove a car himself - he was afraid to get behind the wheel after witnessing two terrible accidents as a child.
• Bradbury was a devoted family man and lived his entire life with one woman. It was with her hands that the first copy of The Martian Chronicles was typed.