Interesting facts about rea bradbury. Ray Bradbury. quotes from books and interesting facts from the life of a great dreamer. The beginning of creative activity

It is believed that he was one of the first authors who were able to arouse readers' interest in the genres of science fiction and fantasy.

And we at Bright Side love it, so we put it together best quotes from his works.

* When a person is 17, he knows everything. If he is 27 and still knows everything, then he is still 17.

* There are crimes worse than burning books. For example, do not read them.

* The first thing you know in life is that you are a fool. The last thing you know is that you're still the same fool.

(6 reasons why friends and colleagues may think you are a Fool... https://cont.ws/@vmrus1/910425)

* Kindness and intelligence are properties of old age. At 20, a woman is much more interested in being heartless and frivolous.

* To survive, you must stop asking what is the meaning of life. Life itself is the answer.

* Wars are never won. All they do is lose, and whoever loses last asks for peace.

* Evil has only one power - the one that we give it ourselves.

* When life is good, there is no point in arguing about it.

* Love is when someone can return himself to a person.

* Open your eyes wider, live so greedily, as if in ten seconds you will die. Try to see the world. It is more beautiful than any dream created in a factory and paid for with money. Do not ask for guarantees, do not seek peace - there is no such beast in the world.

* When you live all the time next to people, they do not change one iota. You are amazed at the changes that have taken place in them only if you part for a long time, for years.

* Looking for rabbits in hats is a disastrous business, just like looking for at least a drop common sense in the minds of some people.

* Smile, do not bring pleasure to trouble.

* Human memory is like a sensitive photographic film, and all our life we ​​do nothing but try to erase what is imprinted on it.

* Yes, we have enough free time. But do we have time to think?

* We have one duty - to be happy.

* Whoever ceased to be surprised, he ceased to love, and ceased to love - consider that you have no life, and whoever has no life - consider that he went to the grave. *

* And if live full life- means to die sooner, so be it: I prefer to die quickly, but first taste more of life.

* No matter what you do; it is important that everything you touch changes shape, becomes different from before, so that a particle of yourself remains in it. This is the difference between a person who simply cuts the grass on the lawn and a real gardener.

* Create yourself what can save the world - and if you drown along the way, at least you will know that you were swimming to the shore.

* Books are just one of the receptacles where we keep what we are afraid to forget.

* The main secret Creativity is about treating your ideas like cats—just make them follow you.

* Love is when you want to experience all four seasons with someone. When you want to run away with someone spring thunderstorm under the lilac strewn with flowers, and in the summer to pick berries and swim in the river. In autumn, cook jam together and seal windows from the cold. In winter - to help survive a runny nose and long evenings ...

* I experienced the simplest and greatest happiness in the world - I was alive.


10 Interesting Facts About Ray Bradbury

1. Ray Bradbury had no education other than high school, which he completed in 1938. Bradbury could not go to college, he had no money. But he spent hours sitting in the library for books. Therefore, Ray himself called himself a man who graduated from libraries instead of college; this phrase became part of the title of his autobiographical article, published in 1971. By the way, as a young Ray sold newspapers, then for several years he lived at the expense of his wife.

2. In his memoirs, Ray noted that when he was taking his first collection of stories, The Martian Chronicles, to a screening in New York, he did not have money for a train. On his second trip to New York, he was already overtaken by fans of his work: during a stop in Chicago, they wanted an autograph in the first edition of The Martian Chronicles.

3. The only case when Bradbury, who in his life refrained from strong words (but widely used them in his works), cursed in public, is described by his biographer Sam Weller. This happened when the students of one of the colleges tried to explain to the writer what he actually wrote the novel Fahrenheit 451 about and did not listen to Bradbury's objections at all.


Photo: Cover of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 edition.

4. In an interview, Bradbury admitted that he dreams of going to Mars, and even jokingly asked to be buried on the red planet in a can of cabbage soup.

5. According to the writer himself, the impetus for the idea of ​​the novel "451 degrees Fahrenheit" was the story of the burning of the library in Alexandria. This event has at least four supposed dates, and Bradbury himself spoke of it as having happened "3000 years ago."

6. The first publication of Bradbury took place in January 1938 in a fanzine (amateur small circulation edition) "Imagination!". The story was called Hollerbrochen's Dilemma.

7. During his life, Bradbury wrote eleven science fiction novels (the first, "The Martian Chronicles" - in 1950, the last, "Goodbye Summer!" - in 2006), over 400 science fiction stories and novellas, published in 45 collections and two anthologies from 1947 to 2011, and 21 plays, excluding children's books, screenplays and other literary works.

Pictured: Ray Bradbury in Los Angeles.

8. One of the directors for whom Bradbury wrote scripts was Alfred Hitchcock. He, in particular, turned to the writer with a request to write a screenplay based on the story "Birds" by Daphne Du Maurier, but did not want to wait for two weeks, which Bradbury asked for this job, at that moment he was working on scripts for the series "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", which included four movie.

9. There is a Ray Bradbury Award, periodically awarded for the best fantasy screenplay as part of the Nebula Award (Awards of the Science Fiction Writers of America). James Cameron won the first Bradbury Award in 1992 for Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

10. Ray Bradbury, even at ninety, started every day by sitting down to write a manuscript because he believed that one more new story would prolong his life. Books were published almost every year: the last major novel was published in 2006, even before it appeared on the shelves, guaranteeing itself the glory of a bestseller.

On the night of June 5-6, one of the most popular science fiction writers, Ray Bradbury, died in the United States. The author of The Martian Chronicles died at the age of 92 at his home in Los Angeles.

1. Ray Bradbury had no education other than high school, which he completed in 1938. Bradbury could not go to college, he had no money. But he spent hours sitting in the library for books. Therefore, Ray himself called himself a man who graduated from libraries instead of college; this phrase became part of the title of his autobiographical article, published in 1971. By the way, as a young Ray sold newspapers, then for several years he lived at the expense of his wife.

Pictured: Ray Bradbury in Los Angeles.
(AP Photo)

2. In his memoirs, Ray noted that when he was taking his first collection of stories, The Martian Chronicles, to a screening in New York, he did not have money for a train. On his second trip to New York, he was already overtaken by fans of his work: during a stop in Chicago, they wanted an autograph in the first edition of The Martian Chronicles.

Pictured: Ray Bradbury, despite being one of the most prolific writers and gifted storytellers in the US, didn't have a television presence until the Home Box Office television show Ray Bradbury Theater appeared. Pictured: February, 1986. Ray in his office in Beverly Hills, surrounded by toys and treasures.
(AP Photo/Doug Pizac)

3. The only case when Bradbury, who in his life refrained from strong words (but widely used them in his works), cursed in public, is described by his biographer Sam Weller. This happened when the students of one of the colleges tried to explain to the writer what he actually wrote the novel Fahrenheit 451 about and did not listen to Bradbury's objections at all.

Photo: Cover of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 edition.
(AP Photo)

4. In an interview, Bradbury admitted that he dreams of going to Mars, and even jokingly asked to be buried on the red planet in a can of cabbage soup.

Pictured: Actors Julie Christie and Oscar Wernera filming the love scene from the movie Fahrenheit 451 at Pinewood Studios near London on February 15, 1966. "451 ° Fahrenheit" (Eng. Fahrenheit 451) - Feature Film about a dystopian future based on the novel of the same name by Ray Bradbury. Directed by François Truffaut in 1966, the film is his first film in color and the only one made in English.
(AP Photo)

5. According to the writer himself, the impetus for the idea of ​​the novel "451 degrees Fahrenheit" was the story of the burning of the library in Alexandria. This event has at least four supposed dates, and Bradbury himself spoke of it as having happened "3000 years ago."

In the photo: science fiction writer Ray Bradbury examines the painting, which was part of school project, the purpose of which was to reveal the image of one of the main characters of the work of Ray Bradbury. Hollywood, California. December 8, 1966
(AP Photo)

6. The first publication of Bradbury took place in January 1938 in a fanzine (amateur small circulation edition) "Imagination!". The story was called Hollerbrochen's Dilemma.

Pictured: Fiction writer Ray Bradbury smiles at reporters at a meeting at his office in Beverly Hills, California. February, 1982.
(AP Photo/Lennox McLendon)

7. During his life, Bradbury wrote eleven science fiction novels (the first, The Martian Chronicles - in 1950, the last, Goodbye Summer! - in 2006), over 400 science fiction stories and novellas, published in 45 collections and two anthologies from 1947 to 2011, and 21 plays, excluding children's books, screenplays and other literary works.

Pictured: Ray Bradbury, despite being one of the most prolific writers and gifted storytellers in the US, didn't have a television presence until the Home Box Office television show Ray Bradbury Theater appeared. Pictured: January 10, 1986. Ray in his office in Beverly Hills, surrounded by toys and treasures.
(AP Photo/Doug Pizac)

8. One of the directors for whom Bradbury wrote scripts was Alfred Hitchcock. He, in particular, turned to the writer with a request to write a screenplay based on the story "Birds" by Daphne Du Maurier, but did not want to wait for two weeks, which Bradbury asked for this job, at that moment he was working on scripts for the series "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", which included four movie.

Pictured: January 29, 1997. Ray Bradbury is photographed after he signed his book Faster than a Look in Cupertino, California.
(AP Photo/Steve Castillo, file)

9. There is a Ray Bradbury Award, periodically awarded for the best fantasy screenplay as part of the Nebula Award (Awards of the Science Fiction Writers of America). James Cameron won the first Bradbury Award in 1992 for Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

November 15, 2000. Ray Bradbury at the National Book Award in New York, where he was presented with an award for outstanding contribution to American literature.
(AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, file)

10. Ray Bradbury, even at ninety, started every day by sitting down to write a manuscript because he believed that one more new story would prolong his life. Books were published almost every year: the last major novel was published in 2006, even before it appeared on the shelves, guaranteeing itself the glory of a bestseller.

Pictured: January 15, 1990. Science fiction writer Ray Bradbury after an interview he gave while relaxing on an alpine ski resort Avoriaz.
(JM HURON/AFP/GettyImages)

Source: www.forbes.ru

Ray Douglas Bradbury is a unique writer who has given the world over 400 unique works. The author began his work with stories, and ended with serious novels. He received many awards and prizes in the field of literature, brought the genre of science fiction to the mainstream, although he wrote few stories in this field. He is a legend. I will not rewrite the life story of Ray Bradbury, you can open Wikipedia for this. But in this article I will reveal to you Interesting Facts to help you get to know the writer better. Are you already looking forward to it? Then we start.

Ray Bradbury - The Man Who Changed Literature

1. Ray Bradbury believed that his great-grandmother Mary Bradbury was burned as a witch at the Salem Trials in 1692.

2. Throughout his life, the writer loved only one woman - his wife Margaret. He survived her by 8 years.

When a person is 17, he knows everything. If he's 27 and still knows everything, then he's still 17.

3. The first collection of stories by Ray Bradbury "Dark Carnival" was not successful, it was not accepted by the public. But almost before the death of the writer, the collection was reissued with Ray's notes (by the way, I have this version, and it should be noted - this is my favorite book).

4. When creating the collection "Dark Carnival" the writer copied the style of Edgar Alan Poe. But of all the works of the author, this book contains the memories of the writer.

The first thing you know in life is that you are a fool. The last thing you know is that you're still the same fool.

5. In one of the stories, the writer describes childhood experiences, his first childhood love before meeting his wife. The girl drowned, leaving a deep scar in Ray's memory.

6. In 2005, the film Came Out of Thunder was filmed based on the story of the same name by Ray Bradbury.

Smile, do not give pleasure to trouble.

7. The writer also wrote poetry, but the public took it coldly.

Books are just one of the receptacles where we store what we are afraid to forget.

9. In 1983, Walt Disney Studios filmed the novel Something Terrible Is Coming. This Is the Way Evil Comes won the Saturn Film Award twice in 1984. (My acquaintance with the author began with this book, perhaps it was the beginning of my professional activity).

10. In 2015, the television series Whisper was filmed based on the work "The Lesson Hour".

I experienced the simplest and greatest happiness in the world - I was alive.

11. The only person Ray Bradbury didn't use in the books is his own father. Only after his death, the writer dedicated to him a whole collection of stories "The Cure for Melancholy".

12. Ray Bradbury was afraid of cars all his life and never got behind the wheel.

13. The writer did not receive a higher vocational education. He taught himself. As the author himself writes, "I graduated from the library."

The main secret of creativity is to treat your ideas like cats - just make them follow you.

14. Ray Bradbury never cursed, only once when a group of students pissed him off, explaining what the writer was actually talking about in his novel Fahrenheit 451. (I think any author in his place did exactly the same).

15. The writer printed all his books and stories only on a typewriter.

On the night of June 5-6, one of the most popular science fiction writers, Ray Bradbury, died in the United States. The author of The Martian Chronicles died at the age of 92 at his home in Los Angeles.


1. Ray Bradbury had no education other than high school, which he completed in 1938. Bradbury could not go to college, he had no money. But he spent hours sitting in the library for books. Therefore, Ray himself called himself a man who graduated from libraries instead of college; this phrase became part of the title of his autobiographical article, published in 1971. By the way, as a young Ray sold newspapers, then for several years he lived at the expense of his wife.

2. In his memoirs, Ray noted that when he was taking his first collection of stories, The Martian Chronicles, to a screening in New York, he did not have money for a train. On his second trip to New York, he was already overtaken by fans of his work: during a stop in Chicago, they wanted an autograph in the first edition of The Martian Chronicles.

3. The only case when Bradbury, who in his life refrained from strong words (but widely used them in his works), cursed in public, is described by his biographer Sam Weller. This happened when the students of one of the colleges tried to explain to the writer what he actually wrote the novel Fahrenheit 451 about and did not listen to Bradbury's objections at all.

4. In an interview, Bradbury admitted that he dreams of going to Mars, and even jokingly asked to be buried on the red planet in a can of cabbage soup.

5. According to the writer himself, the impetus for the idea of ​​the novel "451 degrees Fahrenheit" was the story of the burning of the library in Alexandria. This event has at least four supposed dates, and Bradbury himself spoke of it as having happened "3000 years ago."

6. The first publication of Bradbury took place in January 1938 in a fanzine (amateur small circulation edition) "Imagination!". The story was called Hollerbrochen's Dilemma.

7. During his life, Bradbury wrote eleven science fiction novels (the first, The Martian Chronicles - in 1950, the last, Goodbye Summer! - in 2006), over 400 science fiction stories and novellas, published in 45 collections and two anthologies from 1947 to 2011, and 21 plays, excluding children's books, screenplays and other literary works.

8. One of the directors for whom Bradbury wrote scripts was Alfred Hitchcock. He, in particular, turned to the writer with a request to write a screenplay based on the story "Birds" by Daphne Du Maurier, but did not want to wait for two weeks, which Bradbury asked for this job, at that moment he was working on scripts for the series "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", which included four movie.

9. There is a Ray Bradbury Award, periodically awarded for the best fantasy screenplay as part of the Nebula Award (Awards of the Science Fiction Writers of America). James Cameron won the first Bradbury Award in 1992 for Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

10. Ray Bradbury, even at ninety, started every day by sitting down to write a manuscript because he believed that one more new story would prolong his life. Books were published almost every year: the last major novel was published in 2006, even before it appeared on the shelves, guaranteeing itself the glory of a bestseller.

Each of his works was a sincere story about little people and big worlds, about love and the future of mankind, about the issues of life and death, and instantly became the property of world literature.

Sputnik Georgia talks about the 10 most little known facts from the life and work of Ray Bradbury - a man who managed to awaken readers' interest in the genres of science fiction and fantasy, which before him were on the periphery of modern culture.

1. The proximity of death

Bradbury felt the proximity of death from an early age. He had two older twin brothers born in 1916: Leonard and Sam, Sam died at the age of two. Sister Elizabeth, who was born in 1926, also died in childhood from pneumonia, in the same year the writer's grandfather passed away. Such an early acquaintance with death could not but be reflected in many of the writer's future works.

"Death! I will fight it with my works, my books, my children, who will remain after me," Bradbury wrote.

2. Descendant of a sorceress

There was a legend in the Bradbury family that the great-grandmother of the writer Mary Bradbury was burned at the famous "Salem trial" in 1692. The sentences of all convicted witches were overturned in 1957. This fact is not reliably confirmed, but Ray himself believed in it.

© A.P. Photo /

3. No education - there is a future

Ray did not have a higher education. In 1938 he graduated high school. Due to the difficult financial situation of the family, money for higher education was not, Bradbury was never able to go to college. The young man spent the next three years of his life selling newspapers on the streets of Los Angeles. But the lack of further education did not interfere with his life, as the writer mentioned in his article "How Instead of College I Graduated from the Library, or Thoughts of a Teenager Who Went to the Moon in 1932." Ray spent days in the library reading Shaw, Chesterton, Stevenson, Shakespeare, Dickens. The writer recalled: "Three days a week I read books. At the age of 27, instead of university, I graduated from the library."

© AP Photo / Doug Pizac

4. Love of a lifetime

Margaret (Maggie) Maclure Bradbury met his future wife and love of his life in 1946 at a Los Angeles bookstore where she worked. A year later, in 1947, Maggie and Ray got married, their marriage lasted until Maclure's death in 2003. During the first few years, Maggie worked hard so that Ray could be creative. Writing at that time did not bring him much income. The family's total monthly income was about $250, of which Margaret earned half. Four daughters were born in their marriage: Bettina, Ramona, Susan and Alexandra. The dedication of the author in The Martian Chronicles is addressed to Maclure: "To my wife Margaret with sincere love."

5. Playboy fame

World fame came to Bradbury after the publication of the novel "451 degrees Fahrenheit" (Fahrenheit 451) in 1953. It is noteworthy that the novel was first published in the then recently appeared Playboy magazine. In the novel, Bradbury showed a totalitarian society in which any books are subject to burning. In 1966, director François Truffaut adapted the novel into a feature film called Fahrenheit 451.

© AP Photo / Katy Winn

6. Fear of car accidents

Throughout his life, Bradbury was terrified of car accidents. During the Great Depression, the family often had to cross the country in search of a place to settle, and Ray often witnessed nightmarish car accidents. One day he was very close to broken car, in which the dying woman lay, and for some time they looked into each other's eyes. The extremely impressionable young man fell ill on the same day and promised never to drive a car. He could not get rid of these painful memories until the end of his life, and sometimes they broke through in his stories.

7. Phenomenal memory

Ray Bradbury had a phenomenal memory. According to the writer, he remembered everything he heard and saw almost from the moment of birth. Later, with the same ease, he memorized everything he read. Bradbury wrote that he could mentally return to the hour of his birth: "I remember the circumcision of the umbilical cord, I remember the first time I sucked my mother's breast. The nightmares that usually lie in wait for a newborn are listed in my mental cheat sheet from the very first weeks of life." Some of his biographers believe that Ray could have been born premature, ten months old, resulting in last month During their stay in the womb, the infant could develop sight and hearing.

© AFP / JM HURON

8. Appeal to authorities

In his work, Ray Brewdbury repeatedly appealed to authorities - he paid tribute to great writers and poets. "Something terrible is coming" - a line from Shakespeare's "Macbeth"; "An outlandish marvel" - from an unfinished poem by Coleridge; Yeats line "Golden apples of the sun, silver apples of the moon"; "Electric body I sing" - a reference to Whitman (I sing about the electric body; Legions of loved ones embrace me, and I embrace them); “And the moon still silvers the space with its rays ...” - this is Byron (... we don’t wander at night, even though the soul is full of love). The second title of the story "Sleep in Armageddon" - "And to dream, perhaps" - these are the words of Hamlet. "The sailor returned home, he returned home from the sea!" - these words begin "Requiem" by Robert Louis Stevenson. The story "The Happiness Machine" is titled with a line by William Blake. Thomas Wolfe ("On the Eternal Wanderings and the Earth"), Charles Dickens ("The Most Beautiful Time"), Hemingway ("Kilimanjaro Machine"), Stendhal ("Escher 2"), Bernard Shaw ("Mark five"). His characters constantly quote their favorite authors. As Granger said from Fahrenheit 451: "... when they ask us what we are doing, we will answer: we remember. Yes, we are the memory of mankind, and therefore we will certainly win in the end."

9. People are idiots

Ray Bradbury gave the following definition of fiction: "Fiction is our reality, brought to the point of absurdity." In the novel, Bradbury foresaw and described modern life, or rather the destruction of world mass culture. Years later, answering the question why many of his predictions did not come true, the writer answered sharply: "Because people are idiots." According to the fantasy modern society wants to engage in consumption - drink beer and watch TV shows. They came up with dog costumes, an advertising manager position, and useless "things like an iPhone." But it was possible to develop science and explore space, Bradbury believed.

© AP Photo / Mark Lennihan

10. Faith in the best

Ray Bradbury believed in the best to the last. Being already quite an elderly man, he began every morning by working on the manuscript of the next story or story, believing that one more new work would prolong his life. Books come out almost every year. The last major novel saw the light of day in 2006, receiving high consumer demand even before the release. At 79, Bradbury suffered a stroke, after which all last years life was confined to a wheelchair, but retained the presence of mind and sense of humor.

In one of his recent interviews the master said: “You know, ninety years is not at all as cool as I used to think. And it’s not that I drive around the house in a wheelchair, getting stuck on corners ... A hundred just sounds more solid. Imagine the headlines in all the newspapers of the world - "Bradbury turned a hundred years old! "I will immediately be given some kind of award: simply for the fact that I have not died yet."



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