The Bradbury Chronicles Read Free Page A

lit-crit Ping-Pong volley, until, finally, incensed that the professor and his students thought they knew more about the work than the author who created it, Ray told them all to F-off. Afterward, angered, he stomped out of the room.
    While he may not often curse, Ray Bradbury does cry. Often. Tears of joy. Tears of sorrow. He cries when watching the news; he cries when people say kind things to him; he cries when recalling fond memories. Sometimes he cries several times a day. He is not afraid to express deep emotion. He is an unabashed sentimentalist. He is also fun, generous, gregarious, temperamental, brilliant. In my estimation, he is a genius, one whose formal education ended at high school, but who went on to educate himself at the Los Angeles Public Library.
    But more than anything else, Ray Bradbury was a child born and bred on popular culture who himself went on to leave an indelible tattoo on popular Americana. Short stories. Novels. Radio. Comic books. Movies. Television. The stage. Architecture and design. Arguably, no other twentieth-century literary figure can claim such sweeping cultural impact. This book charts that influence, and in the process, it answers the one question Ray Bradbury is asked most often: “Where do you get your ideas?”
    This is the epic tale of a twentieth-century icon, a man beloved by multiple generations, whose fans number in the millions, myself just one of them. But because I am a fan, and Ray had given his blessing for this biography, the inevitable question arises concerning objectivity. The memories in The Bradbury Chronicles are Ray Bradbury’s. On rare occasions, research contradicted his memories, and these instances are duly noted. In the course of my interviews with Ray, his family, friends, and collaborators, as well as the research that took me through the files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, to university collections, to Ray’s own private vaults, not once did he interfere, make suggestions, or insist on reading the manuscript. He knew and respected my commitment to telling the complete story of his life.
    And here it is: the life of Ray Bradbury. Whether you are already a member of the fan club or you are just joining, it’s an amazing rocket ride.
    â€” SAM WELLER  
    Chicago, Illinois
    Summer 2004   

1. REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST
    Ray Bradbury’s most significant contribution to our culture is showing us that the imagination has no foreseeable boundaries. His skills as a storyteller have inspired and empowered generations to tell their stories no matter how bizarre or improbable. Today we need Ray Bradbury’s gifts more than ever, and his stories have made him immortal.
    â€” STEVEN SPIELBERG, Academy Award–winning director
    â€œI REMEMBER the day I was born.”
    With this Dickensian flourish, so begins the life story of Ray Bradbury. The birth recollection was one of Ray’s favorite stories to tell. Not surprisingly, it often provoked audible incredulity from his audiences—whether one person or a room full of Bradbury devotees.
    â€œI have what might be called almost total recall back to my birth,” he continued. “This is a thing I have debated with psychologists and with friends over the years. They say, ‘It’s impossible.’ Yet I remember.”
    This much is certain: Ray Douglas Bradbury arrived in the world, in Waukegan, Illinois, at 4:50 P.M . on August 22, 1920, with Dr. Charles Pierce presiding at Maternity Hospital, a few blocks west of the small Bradbury family home. Ray had overstayed his time in the womb by a month, and it was his theory that the additional incubation time may have heightened his senses. “When you stay in the womb for ten months, you develop your eyesight and your hearing. So when I was born, I remember it,” he insisted. And who is to argue?
    â€œBorn to Mr. and Mrs. Leo Bradbury, 11 South St. James Street, a son,” proclaimed the