Ray Bradbury (his given name is not Raymond) was born in Waukegan, Illinois to a Swedish immigrant mother and a father who was a power and telephone linemanHis paternal grandfather and great-grandfather were newspaper publishers, and not surprisingly, Bradbury was a reader and writer throughout his youth, spending much time in the Carnegie Library in Waukegan. His novels Dandelion Wine and Something Wicked This Way Comes depict the town of Waukegan as "Green Town" and are semi-autobiographical.

The Bradbury family lived in Tucson, Arizona, in 1926-1927 and 1932-1933, each time returning to Waukegan, and eventually settled in Los Angeles in 1934, when Ray was thirteen.

Bradbury graduated from Los Angeles High School in 1938 but chose not to attend college. Instead, he sold newspapers at the corner of South Norton Avenue and Olympic Boulevard. He continued to educate himself at the local library, and having been influenced by science fiction heroes like Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers he began to publish science fiction stories in fanzines in 1938.

His first paid piece was for the pulp magazine Super Science Stories in 1941. He became a full-time writer by the end of 1942. His first book, Dark Carnival, a collection of short works, was published in 1947 by Arkham House. He married Marguerite McClure (1922-2003) in 1947, and they had four daughters

In the early 1950's notorious EC comics made 27 of his stories as cfomic book features. ShockSuspense Stories, CrimeSuspense Stories, Vault Of Horror, Weird Science and more.


<-- Back to Artist's Card