The Bradbury Chronicles: The Life of Ray Bradbury

This is everything a true Scion of Bradbury could ever seek in a biography. Weller's writings reminded me of childhood curiosities, idle musings on the nature of my favorite author, and just as he incites such queries, he anticipates and satisfies them within paragraphs. The layout is such to explain the development of Bradbury's indidivual works without disrupting the chronological explanation of a truly unique and significant life. Want to know why Bradbury considers himself a fantasy writer instead of sci/fi, and how he differentiates the two? Curious as to the nature of the police encounter which inspired Fahrenheit 451 (or indeed where Bradbury found the specific temperature?) Whether you grew up on Bradbury or came to know him later in life, this book will enlighten your mind as to the inner workings of one of the greatest authors alive today.

Sam Weller effectively tells the story of Ray Bradbury, the sensitive child-man behind all the wonderful stories; the man who wrote about space travellers, but who wouldn't get on a jet plane until he was many decades into his own life; the man who worked with directors and writers who didn't understand him or who took advantage of him; the man who worked with so many--some famous, some not so--who appreciated Bradbury's tremendous gifts, who became his friends and business partners, and who gave as much as they got. Weller isn't quite star struck--he presents Bradbury warts and all--his affairs, his bouts of drinking, his depressions, his want, at times, to be more of a child than a husband. But so much the better for all of his fans to know the true story. This is a well-written, honest book, and a must have for Bradbury fans.

For decades, Ray Bradbury has inspired a vast array of creative minds --- from writer Stephen King to film director Steven Spielberg, from rock guitarist Ace Frehley to astronaut Buzz Aldrin --- and now we get a very intimate look into the story behind the man. Sam Weller was given incredible access to Bradbury, his wife Marguerite, and many of his friends and family in an effort to compile this amazing look at the moments that built the framework of Bradbury's creativity. Born in 1920 in Waukegan, Illinois, Ray Bradbury was a child of a father touched by wanderlust and big dreams at a time when the Great Depression had a stranglehold on the country. From Illinois to Arizona to Hollywood, Bradbury's family searched for work. Moving to various areas of the country, he never lost his simple midwest roots, which can be seen in many of his stories as he returns time and again to simpler times in Illinois autumns. As a young boy, Bradbury was inspired by the adventures of Buck Rogers, Tarzan, John Carter of Mars, and a multitude of other fantastical wonders in print and on film. Weller shows us a young man who devoured books and always found the means, even in the hardest of times, to make his way into the movie theater. From these creations he felt the pull toward his own imagination, the results of which has entertained generations of readers. In 1932, Bradbury had an unexpected encounter with sideshow attraction Mr. Electrico. The magician confronted him during his performance and shouted to him "Live forever!" Though Bradbury will no doubt have to leave us (hopefully none too soon), in the end he will have left behind a literary legacy that will ensure Mr. Electrico's bold command holds true. As a young man whose youth was touched by hardships and tragedies, including the deaths of two siblings, Bradbury persevered and showed millions of readers the beauty and mystery of things on Mars and beyond, as well as the great discoveries to be found right in front of their very eyes. His work is a beautiful blend of the fantastic and the real, and they have a common humanity that touches all who read them. Sam Weller's biography of this fantastic man makes him all the more human, and the reader is able to see that the most outstanding and astonishing fantasies have their roots in the simplest moments of everyday life.

Ray Bradbury's gift of total recall and a host of sources provided Sam Weller with the abundant factual and anecdotal materials that comprise this entertaining biography of the science fiction great. During his lifetime, Bradbury's brilliant and quirky A-1 personality dictated incessant interaction with acquaintances, associates, and professional connections. He channeled his ruminations into his art, and as he was a prolific writer, he probably never had a thought or experience that didn't eventually work its way into a story. Ergo, Weller avoids the jumble that so often overtakes a biography when the excitement of the subject's beginnings inevitably gives way to mundane facts (and in this case, they're ample) that relate to the oeuvre. Weller capably intersperses these details with appropriate tidbits all the way to the conclusion, and the result is a sympathetic, amusing depiction of the master of sci-fi that holds the reader to the end. Seminal influences in Bradbury's early years in Waukegan, Illinois include Buck Rogers and Aunt Neva, who nurtured his imagination through the OZ books, Alice in Wonderland, and Poe. Radio, vaudeville magicians, and the pulps also fed his growing passion for fantasy. Weller paints Bradbury's later formative years against the backdrop of Los Angeles and Hollywood of the 30's and 40's, where his family had emigrated. Here, he saw movie stars at openings, and sneaked into the studios and back lots whenever he could. At that time, LA was to science fiction as Hollywood was to movies, and influential writers and contacts became accessible to the budding writer. Name-dropping abounds, and the saga of screenwriting Moby Dick in Ireland for John Huston gives rise to some of the funnier anecdotes. Weller highlights Bradbury's genius to include his sensitivity and sentimentality in this portrait of one of the most popular American writers of the 20th century.

The best biographies of artists make you want to go listen to their music/see their paintings/read their stories. This book sent me back to my bookshelves to re-read "Fahrenheit 451" and a bunch of the short stories (many of which I skipped as a kid because they weren't SF enough - now I see that Bradbury was more than an SF writer). I grew up in Los Angeles, so I heard Bradbury speak a dozen times while growing up. All the great anecdotes he tells are here (meeting Mr. Electrico, John Huston and "Moby Dick"). This biography is full of detail, a little insight, a charm. You see the evolution of many stories (this isn't just a "and then he wrote.." book, like some artistic biographies) but not really the man (maybe that's because Ray is pretty much the same today as he was at six!).