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Ray Douglas Bradbury was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery, and realistic fiction.
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culture · American writer (1920–2012) · screenwriter · poet · writer · prose writer · novelist · science fiction writer · playwright · satirical novelist · also Ray Bradbury, William Elliott, Elliott, William, Raymond Douglas Bradbury, Ray Douglas Bradbury, Bradbury
Born 22 August 1920 · Died 5 June 2012 · Q40640
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Ray Bradbury at Caltech 12 November 1971
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Why then you’re as mad as me. No, madder. For I distrust ’reality’ and its moron mother, the universe, while you fasten your innocence to fallible devices which pretend at happy endings. Lie down with machines, rise up castrato. Sweet Jesus, you’ll make the pope’s choir yet. Such innocent quakes my bones.
I felt that something strange and wonderful had happened to me because of my encounter with Mr. Electrico ... [he] gave me a future ... I began to write, full-time. I have written every single day of my life since that day 69 years ago.
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“Why then you’re as mad as me. No, madder. For I distrust ’reality’ and its moron mother, the universe, while you fasten your innocence to fallible devices which pretend at happy endings. Lie down with machines, rise up castrato. Sweet Jesus, you’ll make the pope’s choir yet. Such innocent quakes my bones.”
“I felt that something strange and wonderful had happened to me because of my encounter with Mr. Electrico ... [he] gave me a future ... I began to write, full-time. I have written every single day of my life since that day 69 years ago.”
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CULTIVARTE MX: Fahrenheit 451: cuando la distopía de Ray Bradbury dejó de parecer tan lejana
Kenosha News: Annual Ray Bradbury art, music festival set in Waukegan
Diario de Jerez: El jerez en la obra de Ray Bradbury
Zenda: Ray Harryhausen, que imaginaba dinosaurios junto a Ray Bradbury
Yahoo: This 2000s Sci-Fi Movie Based On A Ray Bradbury Short Story Was A Major Box Office Flop
Public attention spiked: 6,019 Wikipedia readers in one day, 4.6× the usual 1,305, with 2 article edits. Editors noted: Reverted edits by ~2026-44325-11 (talk): not providing a reliable source (WP:CITE, WP:RS) (HG) (3.4.14)
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Legacy obituary: Lesley William Elliott Obituary (2026) - Fishers, IN - Flanner Buchanan - Oaklawn Memorial Gardens
Public attention spiked: 5,727 Wikipedia readers in one day, 4.4× the usual 1,305, with 0 article edits. Coverage that week: “We’ve Survived Ray Bradbury’s Nuclear Holocaust” (National Review).
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National Review: We’ve Survived Ray Bradbury’s Nuclear Holocaust
Firstpost: August 4, 2026: the exact day Ray Bradbury picked to end the world, 76 years ago
The Dallas Morning News: Damm: Ray Bradbury predicted we’d all die tomorrow. He wasn’t wrong about all of it
Public attention spiked: 4,764 Wikipedia readers in one day, 3.7× the usual 1,305, with 0 article edits.
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TVLine: Ray Bradbury Once Walked Out On A Meeting With NBC: 'I Knew It Was Hopeless'
Chicago Tribune: Waukegan festival celebrates Ray Bradbury and the arts; ‘To show diversity in the arts and engage the entire community’
Chicago Tribune: Waukegan salutes famous son Ray Bradbury at Dandelion Wine Festival
Yahoo: The Ray Bradbury Theater Season 1 Streaming: Watch & Stream Online via Peacock
The Guardian: The Ray Bradbury Theater: kitsch, macabre and gloriously schlocky TV anthology
KCRW: Ahead of Ray Bradbury’s 100th birthday, a look at his writing and love of shopping malls
Awarded Retro Hugo Award for Best Short Story for R Is for Rocket (2019).
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The New York Times reported that the house Bradbury had lived and written in for 50 years, at 10265 Cheviot Drive in Cheviot Hills, Los Angeles, California, had been demolished by the buyer, architect Thom Mayne
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Published “The Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) project” in Nature Genetics — cited 8,602 times.
The American Conservative: Ray Bradbury’s Temple
In an official public statement from the White House Press Office, President Barack Obama said:
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At the age of 91, after a lengthy illness
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Died 2012-06-05.
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“We were put here as witnesses to the miracle of life. We see the stars, and we want them. We are beholden to give back to the universe.... If we make landfall on another star system, we become immortal.”
“I know you've heard it a thousand times before. But it's true — hard work pays off. If you want to be good, you have to practice, practice, practice. If you don't love something, then don't do it.”
“The gift of life is so precious that we should feel an obligation to pay back the universe for the gift of being alive.”
“Recreate the world in your own image and make it better for your having been here.”
“My job is to help you fall in love.”
“Variant: We're not teaching kids to read and write and think. … There's no reason to burn books if you don't read them.”
“The problem in our country isn't with books being banned, but with people no longer reading. Look at the magazines, the newspapers around us – it's all junk, all trash, tidbits of news. The average TV ad has 120 images a minute. Everything just falls off your mind. … You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”
“Każde wymarłe miasto ma swoje duchy. To znaczy wspomnienia.”
“If you don't want a man unhappy politically, don't give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none.”
“two points of view, one agrees, happy”
Criticized big government, saying that there was "too much government" in America, and "I don't believe in government
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During a BAFTA 2010 awards tribute honoring Harryhausen's 90th birthday, Bradbury spoke about having first met him at Forrest J Ackerman's house when they were both 18.
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The Martian Chronicles was adapted for radio by Colonial Radio Theatre on the Air
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A panel designed by artist Michael Pavelich was added to the park detailing the history of Ray Bradbury and Ray Bradbury Park
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The film Ray Bradbury's Chrysalis was produced by Roger Lay Jr
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“s film Moby Dick and scripts for many TV series, including Suspense, The Alfred Hitchcock Show and The Twilight Zone. Bradbury was passionate about literature. In 2008, he told The National Endowment for the Arts:”
Awarded Sir Arthur Clarke Award (2007).
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Awarded Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres (2007).
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Awarded Pulitzer Prize Special Citations and Awards (2007).
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Published “Genome-wide association study of 14,000 cases of seven common diseases and 3,000 shared controls” in Nature — cited 7,940 times.
As the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies and received many of Bradbury's papers and artifacts following his death
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Published “TASSEL: software for association mapping of complex traits in diverse samples” in Bioinformatics — cited 6,962 times.
Bradbury published the original novel remaining after the extraction, and retitled it Farewell Summer
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It was reported that Bradbury was upset with filmmaker Michael Moore for using the title Fahrenheit 9/11, which is an allusion to Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, for his documentary about the George W
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Was awarded the degree of Doctor of Laws (honoris causa) by the National University of Ireland, Galway, at a conferring ceremony in Los Angeles
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The film A Sound of Thunder was released, loosely based upon the short story of the same name
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Bradbury received the National Medal of Arts, presented by President George W
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Won National Medal of Arts (2004).
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Awarded Retro Hugo Award for Best Novel for Fahrenheit 451 (2004).
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Received an honorary doctorate from Woodbury University, where he presented the Ray Bradbury Creativity Award each year until his death
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Awarded Geffen Award (2002).
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Awarded Bram Stoker Award for Best Fiction Collection for One More for the Road (2002).
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Awarded Ross Macdonald Literary Award (2002).
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Bradbury's own Pandemonium Theatre Company production of Fahrenheit 451 at Burbank's Falcon Theatre combined live acting with projected digital animation by the Pixel Pups
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Awarded World Horror Convention Grand Master Award (2001).
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Addams and Bradbury planned a larger collaborative work that would tell the family's complete history, but it never materialized, and according to a 2001 interview, they went their separate ways.
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Received the National Book Award Medal for Distinguished Contribution
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Was awarded the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation
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Awarded Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame (1999).
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That left him partially dependent on a wheelchair
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Bradbury suffered a stroke in 1999 that left him partially dependent on a wheelchair.
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Awarded First Fandom Hall of Fame award (1996).
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Was given the Los Angeles Times Book Prize Robert Kirsch Award winner in 1997, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame inducted him in 1999, its fourth class of two deceased and two living writers
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Awarded Daytime Emmy Award for The Halloween Tree (1994).
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Awarded Helmerich Award (1994).
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Won an Emmy Award for the screenplay The Halloween Tree
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"The Smile" has been adapted as Viktor Chaika's music video "Mona Lisa" which included footage from Soviet TV series This Fantastic World
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Was named "9766 Bradbury" in his honor
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Awarded Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award (1989).
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The Horror Writers Association gave him the fourth or fifth Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement in horror fiction and the Science Fiction Writers of America made him its 10th SFWA Grand Master
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A cartoon adaptation of "Here There Be Tygers" («Здесь могут водиться тигры») by director Vladimir Samsonov came out
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Awarded Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement (1988).
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But in 1990, another shop of the same name (with different owners) opened in Carlsbad, California
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Ray Bradbury was a Guest of Honor at the 44th World Science Fiction Convention, which was held in Atlanta, Ga
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Bradbury wrote: "I see nothing but good coming from computers
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Film adaptation of "I Sing The Body Electric" («Электронная бабушка») came out by Lithuanian director Algimantas Puipa
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“I see nothing but good coming from computers. When they first appeared on the scene, people were saying,”
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Awarded Prometheus Award - Hall of Fame for Fahrenheit 451 (1984).
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The short story Frost and Fire was adapted into a 30-minutes short called Quest, directed by Saul and Elaine Bass
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A cartoon adaptation of "There Will Come Soft Rains" («Будет ласковый дождь») came out by Uzbek director Nazim Tulyakhodzhayev
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Michael McDonough of Brigham Young University produced Bradbury 13, a series of 13 audio adaptations of famous stories from Bradbury, in conjunction with National Public Radio
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Telarium released a game for Commodore 64 based on Fahrenheit 451
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Received the Prometheus Award for Fahrenheit 451
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Was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters (Litt
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Awarded World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement (1977).
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Awarded Valentine Davies Award (1974).
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Awarded Inkpot Award (1974).
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And spoke at the first conference in 1973
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The Screaming Woman was adapted as an ABC Movie-of-the-Week starring Olivia de Havilland
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An impact crater on the Moon was named Dandelion by the Apollo 15 astronauts, in honor of Bradbury's 1957 novel Dandelion Wine
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The Illustrated Man was brought to the big screen, starring Rod Steiger, Claire Bloom, and Robert Drivas
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Bradbury helped Lynn Garrison create AVIAN, a specialist aviation magazine
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Again presenting adaptations of three Bradbury short stories: "The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit", "The Day It Rained Forever", and "Device Out of Time"
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Bradbury appeared on the popular quiz show You Bet Your Life hosted by Groucho Marx
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With It Came from Outer Space, a Harry Essex screenplay developed from Bradbury's screen treatment "Atomic Monster"
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“s book had been close to expiring and the publisher had insisted the new contract include e-book rights. Experts said the news reflected the growing importance of e-formats. Fahrenheit 451, first published in 1953, describes a dystopian future in which the US has outlawed reading and firemen burn books. It has sold more than 10 million copies since publication.”
By director John Huston to work on the screenplay for his film version of Melville's Moby Dick (1956), which stars Gregory Peck as Captain Ahab, Richard Basehart as Ishmael, and Orson Welles as Father Mapple
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Took out an advertisement in Variety as an open letter to Republicans, stating: "Every attempt that you make to identify the Democratic Party as the party of Communism, as the 'left-wing' or 'subversive' party, I will
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Bradbury and his wife were expecting their first child
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Bradbury lived in his parents' home until, in 1947, at age 27, he married Marguerite McClure (January 16, 1922 – November 24, 2003).
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At age 27, he married Marguerite McClure (January 16, 1922 – November 24, 2003)
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By Arkham House, a small press in Sauk City, Wisconsin, owned by August Derleth
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Bradbury joined Laraine Day's Wilshire Players Guild, where for two years he wrote and acted in several plays
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Studied at Los Angeles High School (1938).
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At a secondhand bookstore in Hollywood, Bradbury discovered a handbill promoting meetings of the Los Angeles Science Fiction Society
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In Waukegan, Illinois, to Esther (née Moberg) Bradbury (1888–1966), a Swedish immigrant, and Leonard Spaulding Bradbury (1890–1957), a power and telephone lineman of English ancestry
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Born 1920-08-22.
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s book had been close to expiring and the publisher had insisted the new contract include e-book rights. Experts said the news reflected the growing importance of e-formats. Fahrenheit 451, first published in 1953, describes a dystopian future in which the US has outlawed reading and firemen burn books. It has sold more than 10 million copies since publication.
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