“Without Ray Bradbury, there would be no Stephen King,” Stephen King wrote. “[Bradbury] created moods with few words,” wrote Isaac Asimov.
Journalist, teacher, and writer Sam Weller tackles the life of one of the great writers of the fantastic in The Bradbury Chronicles. Bradbury was an incredibly talented writer who never went to college, did not have much talent early, made many mistakes, but seemed to quell the storms long enough to achieve success.
In his introduction, Weller writes that Ray Bradbury belongs to all generations. This idea is proved by the continuous discovery of Bradbury’s works by young readers every day. He even recently wrote Farewell Summer, a sequel to Dandelion Wine, but this is all what happened after Bradbury made it. It is in this journey that The Bradbury Chronicles is both captivating and original.
By telling the struggles of Bradbury, Weller achieves a synthesis of story and image, putting all the pieces together about a man who lived a dream.
There are few biographies of Bradbury out, the main reason being he has yet to pass away. Weller was able to get first-hand accounts and interviews with Bradbury to assist in writing the book.
Bradbury has always shunned being a celebrity; he preferred spending his days writing. Though, Weller writes that Bradbury had a major impact on American culture, and a group of rising stars like Stephen King who would cite Bradbury as a major influence.
Bradbury was born in Wauekgan, Illinois. It is here that, in his younger years, his imagination was molded.
As a child, Bradbury enjoyed attention and was always looking to entertain. He would go on walks with his mother to the local cinemas, where he gained a taste for good storytelling. He soon learned to read by reading Sunday comic strips.
Ray was influenced creatively by his aunt Neva; and learned to enjoy his mother’s passions of music and movies too.
He first found science fiction in the Buck Rogers comic strips of the 1920s and 30s.
A major turning point in Bradbury’s desire to be a writer came when he joined a science fiction group; it was here where he would perfect his craft, make friends with fellow writers, and, most importantly, find an audience for his work. Robert Heinlein helped Bradbury publish his first story in the magazine Script. From this small achievement Bradbury broke into the market of speculative fiction; his life would never be the same. Bradbury admitted that his early writing was “dreadful.” Soon, he would be regularly courted as one of the premier science fiction/fantasy writers.
Later, while embroiled in his writing career, he would consider himself a fantasy writer, not a science fiction one. Even with titles like The Martian Chronicles, he was steadfast in this thought.
Usually the early parts of a biography are tedious discussions on parents or upbringing, but in this book Weller focuses on key influences, which were important to Bradbury becoming a writer.
Bradbury soon became a regularly published author of short stories, but he was still “penniless.” But, “he had worked his way up from nothing.” He would write a short story a week in the early years.
He began to think about publishing books. Love came his way too, and when he married a young woman named Maggie, he realized that, because she worked, he could continue to write instead of finding himself stuck in a nine-to-five job.
After a visit to New York, he decided that, because of the advice of the publishers, he should begin to think of writing novels. He made this decision after finding out most publishers weren’t looking for short story compilations. He did find a home for his compilations, receiving a fat check of $1,500 from Doubleday for two books, and this represented the first of many sales.
After resounding success from his first few books, Bradbury began to push his writing into markets like radio, TV, and film. He had successes and, as chronicled in the book, failures or plain bad experiences.
Yet He had set himself up to be a writer to be remembered. He touched the lives of millions with books like The October Country and The Martian Chronicles, books that are still stocked in bookstores.
Weller explains that Bradbury wrote science fiction that lacked science. Most of his stories had elements of fantasy, yet to this day it is hard to remove the moniker of being a science fiction writer.
The fact that Bradbury was interviewed for The Bradbury Chronicles countless times, and that there are currently few books examining Bradbury’s life, make this biography a worthwhile read for any fan.
