Ray Bradbury Biography

Ray Bradbury (Full name: Ray Douglas Bradbury) is one of America’s most celebrated authors. He is most famous for his dystopian science-fiction masterpiece Fahrenheit 451.

Although he is best known for his science fiction books, his work spans a variety of genres including fantasy, realistic fiction, horror and mystery. He wrote more than 30 books and nearly 600 short stories. He also wrote numerous screenplays and television scripts including for series such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Twilight Zone.

Bradbury was born on August 22, 1920 in Waukegan, Illinois, US. He had a fairly typical childhood. By the age of 11, he was writing short stories and he published his first short-story in 1938, the same year he graduated high school.

In 1947 (at age 27), he published his first collection of short stories, Dark Carnival. In the 1950s, he established his name as a science fiction writer with books such as The Martian Chronicles (1950), The Illustrated Man (1951) and Fahrenheit 451 (1953).

Bradbury continued writing well into his late 80s before passing away at the age of 91 (on June 5, 2012) after a long illness. When he died, Stephen King wrote ‘”The sound I hear today is the thunder of a giant’s footsteps fading away. But the novels and stories remain, in all their resonance and strange beauty.’

Bradbury never went to college after high school and he credits his success as a writer to self-education. His books, however, have become high school and college English courses. He has received numerous awards including a Pulitzer citation in 2007 and a National Medal of Arts in 2004.

In 2008, a digital copy of The Martian Chronicles arrived in Mars aboard NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander.

Further Reading

Check out the articles below for quotes by Ray Bradbury and other accomplished writers.

You may also enjoy biographies about Neil Gaiman, R.L Stine, Stephen King, J.K Rowling and Margaret Atwood among many more. See more interesting biographies here.

  • Sources Cited for Ray Bradbury’s biography

Ray Bradbury Official Website Home, Life

New York Times (2012) Ray Bradbury, Who Brought Mars to Earth With a Lyrical Mastery, Dies at 91

National Endowment for the Arts (2004) Ray Bradbury

Albert.io (2021) Ray Bradbury: Biography and Writing Style