Ray Bradbury :: History

Ray Bradbury Ray Bradbury was born on August 22, 1920. He was the third son of Leonard Spaulding Bradbury (a telephone lineman for Waukegan Bureau of Power & Light [Wolfe 62, http://www.brookingsbook.com/bradbury/biography.htm]) and Esther Marie Bradbury (a Swedish immigrant [Snodgrass 73]). Ray lived in Waukegan, Illinois for six years until his family left to Tucson, Arizona in 1926. (http://www.brookingsbook.com/bradbury/biography.htm. When Ray Bradbury was eleven, he would be writing stories on butcher. (http://www.brookingsbook.com/bradbury/biography.htm) Ray was very much into science fiction, horror movies, books, comic books, and magic acts. (Snodgrass 73) At age 12, Ray read a newspaper headline reading "World Would End Tomorrow". (Tucson 1932) Young Ray was all excited about this event so he and his brother packed a lunched and camped out on a ridge to see the end. They waited for some time and nothing happened. Disappointed, he and his brother left the ridge and went home. From that point on, Ray vowed to separate from religion. Why? Because he doesn't like a god who likes to see his people run in pseudo-terror. (Vollmer) In 1932, - after his father, Leonard Spaulding Bradbury, was laid off work because of the depression - his family moved to Los Angeles, California. (http://www.brookingsbook.com/bradbury/biography.htm) In 1935, at the age of fifteen, Ray would continue writing stories. Every once in a while he would send them to national magazines for print. (Wolfe 63) None of his work, at this time, was printed. Even though his work was never published, that didn't dispair him from his love of science fiction. With that, he joined the Los Angeles Science-Fiction Society. (Snodgrass 73) Later in the same year, Ray printed out his own magazine called Futura Fantasia. Futura Fantasia only consisted of Ray Bradbury's work. The magazine lasted for only four issues. (Snodgrass 73) In 1938, Ray Bradbury finished High School at Los Angeles High School in Los Angeles, California. (McNelly 918) Nearly four years of trying to have one of this stories being published, Ray has his fist printing with Imagination! Magazine and the story called Hollerbochen's Dilemma. (http://www.brookingsbook.com/bradbury/biography.htm) This was a big break for Ray. He had never had a piece of work of his being printed. Some of Ray's influences have been "†¦ L. Frank Baum's magic land of Oz, the never-never Africa of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan of the Apes, and Barsoom, Burroughs' impossible, romantic Mars†¦". (McNelly 918) But with even these writers, his biggest influence was not of a writer, but of a magician act of a passing circus.