Ray Bradbury, author of more than 500 stories, poems, essays,
plays, films, television plays, radio, music, and comic books, was
born on August 22, 1920, in Waukegan, Illinois. Twice during his
childhood, Bradbury moved with his family to Arizona, returning to
the midwest both times before settling permanently in Los Angeles
in 1934. At the age of fifteen, Bradbury began submitting short
stories to national magazines, beginning his career as one of the
best known science-fiction writers of all time. After his
graduation from Los Angeles High School in 1938, Bradbury worked
his way up from selling newspapers on street corners and publishing
short stories in amateur fan magazines to writing the best-selling
classics The Martian Chronicles, published in 1950, and Fahrenheit
451, published in 1953.
Bradbury has won numerous awards for his works. His Sun and
Shadow won the Benjamin Franklin Award of 1953-54 for Best Story in
an American Magazine. In 1954, Fahrenheit 451 won the Commonwealth
Club of California Gold Medal and Bradbury received an award from
the National Institute of Arts and Letters for contribution to
American literature. Switch on the Night earned the Boys Club of
America Junior Book Award in 1956. Icarus Montgolfier Wright in
1963 garnered an Academy Award nomination for short film.
He was honored in 1977 with a World Fantasy Award for Life
Achievement, and in 1977 with the Balrog Award for Best Poet. In
addition to his writing achievements, Bradbury was the idea
consultant and wrote the basic scenario for the United States
pavilion at the 1964 World's Fair, as well as being an imagineer
for Walt Disney Enterprises, where he designed the Spaceship Earth
exhibition at Walt Disney World's Epcot Center. Bradbury lives in
Los Angeles.