Ray Bradbury, also known as Raymond Douglas Spaulding, has not only published works of science fiction, but also numerous writings in drama, poetry, screenplays, detective fiction, and even musical compositions. Many of his stories have been made into movies and television shows. One of his most famous works is Fahrenheit 451.
Bradbury is viewed by many as an ill-tempered old man who is out to keep hold of his freedom of speech. He does not believe in excerpts from stories. In his opinion, to comprehend the idea of the story, you have to read the whole thing with nothing edited out. The letters he receives on giving he female and African American characters better treatment anger him even more. He feels that these approaches lead to the banning of books. This may be where he came up with the idea of the story of Fahrenheit 451. Another possibly source for his story ideas is his dreams he had. He bases many of his stories off of nightmares from his childhood. He also witnessed a terrible car accident as a child, and therefore has never driven one. This is one reason he talks about cars speeding by in his novels.
Writing since the age of eleven, Bradbury has composed numerous works. He was born in Waukegan, Illinois, on August 22, 1920. Bradbury never went to college, but he attended a writing class in 1941 conducted by Robert Heinlein, a "science fiction master." Using the skills he learned in this class, he wrote a short story called "Pendulum" with Henry Hasse in Super Science Stories. The first story he wrote using his own style is "The Lake" in 1942. Bradbury was selected best author in 1949 by the National Fantasy Fan Federation. His first major advance was in 1950 with The Martian Chronicles. With the publication of this novel, Christopher Isherwood, Orville Prescott, Angus Wilson, and Gilbert Highet proclaimed Bradbury a writer of national merit. Some other men, though, dislike Bradbury's writing style.
