SF legend Ray Bradbury died 5 June 2012, after a long illness. Born Ray Douglas Bradbury on 22 August 1920 in Waukegan, Illinois, his family moved to Los Angeles in 1934. Three years later, he made contact with the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society, molding his life’s trajectory. In 1977, he won the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 1980, the Gandalf Award. In 1989, he received both the Stoker Life Achievement Award and SFWA’s Grand Master Award. In 1999, he was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame, and won the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films’ George Pal Memorial Award. In 2000, he won the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. In 2001, the World Horror Convention named him a Grand Master. In 2002, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2004, he received the National Medal of Arts, and a Pulitzer Prize Special Citation in 2007. In 2008, he received the Rhysling Grand Master Poet Award. In 2010, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America renamed their film Nebula Award “The Ray Bradbury Award” in his honor.
After graduating from Los Angeles High School, Bradbury moved straight into the work force. Regarding his education, he told the New York Times in 2009: “Libraries raised me. I don’t believe in colleges and universities. I believe in libraries because most students don’t have any money. When I graduated from high school, it was during the Depression and we had no money. I couldn’t go to college, so I went to the library three days a week for 10 years.”
Bradbury’s first published sf story, “Pendulum”, appeared in the November 1941 issue of Super Science Stories, and in 1943, he was able to make the leap to full-time writer. His first book, a collection of his short work, was Dark Carnival, published by Arkham House in 1947.
Among his best-known works are The Martian Chronicles (1950), The Illustrated Man (1951), The Golden Apples of the Sun (1953), Fahrenheit 451 (1953, an extension of “The Fireman”, which was published in Galaxy in 1951), Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962), and the volume that still has an important place on my shelf: The Stories of Ray Bradbury (1980).
His first television writing were stories in 1951 for the series Lights Out and Out There. In 1956, he shared a writing credit with director John Huston for Moby Dick, starring Gregory Peck. His IMDb entry has a seemingly exhaustive list of his film and television credits. In 1985, The Ray Bradbury Theater debuted as an anthology television series, with most of the 65 episodes based on his own sf writing.
Bradbury’s work-specific awards include Seiun Awards in 1971, 1972, and 1973 for foreign short story (for “The Poems” [1945], “The Blue Bottle” [1950], and “The Black Ferris” [1948]). Fahrenheit 451 was named to the Prometheus Hall of Fame in 1984, won the Geffen in 2002, and the Retro Hugo Award in 2004. His collection One More for the Road won the Stoker Award in 2003. And his television adaptation of The Halloween Tree (1993) won a Daytime Emmy Award.
Finally, in 2010, Bradbury received what may have been the ultimate fan accolade: musician Rachel Bloom recorded the song and starred in the music video for “Fuck Me, Ray Bradbury” (which was nominated for a Hugo Award the following for Dramatic Presentation—Short Form. Fan and friend Mark Edward had the honor of showing the video to Ray, and describes the experience in this blog post.
In 1999, Bradbury suffered a stroke, which severely impaired his movement, but his mind remained clear, and he continued to write and work.
I first met Ray Bradbury in 1989, a few months after I started working in science fiction, when he received his SFWA Grand Master Award. I’d always enjoyed and admired his writing, I think in part because I knew him best for his short fiction. After the awards ceremony, I told him so, and he grabbed my hand to shake it, saying in a very squeaky voice “Aren’t you sweet!” It was a thrill to meet him in a situation he was so clearly enjoying. Since he lived in California, I only saw him rarely after that. The last time, I think, was at the Nebula Awards weekend in Los Angeles in 2001. I was kind of distracted—being the publisher of Artemis Magazine, and thus sweating my first Nebula nominee (Stanley Schmidt’s “Generation Gap”)—to the point that I must have been oblivious to many people there. Nevertheless, when Ray entered the room, I immediately snapped to alertness. Though he was using a wheelchair, and his speech was a bit slurred, his mind was clear, and he was having a good time.
His wife of 56 years, Marguerite Susan McClure, died in 2003. Bradbury is survived by four daughters and eight grandchildren.
The Los Angeles Times has a nice photo gallery of Ray Bradbury at this link.
Related articles previously published on SFScope:
The Planetary Society is gathering wishes for Ray Bradbury’s 90th birthday (23 July 2010)
Agent Don Congdon Dies (3 December 2009)
Theatre designer/director John Blankenschip dies (12 May 2009)
Ray Bradbury receives his SFPA Grand Master award (27 August 2008)
New play Without Whom is based on the lives of Marguerite and Ray Bradbury (3 July 2008)
Review of The Golden Apples of the Sun by Ray Bradbury (29 August 2007)