Ray Bradbury

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Ray Bradbury (1975)

Ray Douglas Bradbury (born August 22, 1920 in Waukegan , Illinois , † June 5, 2012 in Los Angeles ) was an American writer and screenwriter whose focus was science fiction , horror and fantasy .

Life

Ray Bradbury (1976)

Ray Bradbury was born in Waukegan, Illinois in 1920 to Leonard Spaulding Bradbury and the Swedish Esther Marie Moberg. In 1934 his family moved to Los Angeles. His writing talent was already recognized during his school days, and in 1937 he joined the Los Angeles Science Fiction League and the Poetry Club. In 1938 he graduated from Los Angeles High School. That same year, Bradbury published in Imagination! his first story.

Bradbury regularly borrowed books from the library and was impressed by science fiction heroes such as Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers at this early stage . When his short stories proved successful, he embarked on a career as a freelance writer , initially writing for newspapers and magazines .

In 1947 he married Marguerite McClure (1922-2003), with whom he had four daughters, and published his first book.

Bradbury's literary breakthrough came with the story The Mars Chronicles published in 1950 . This socially critical work, which deals with the colonization of the planet Mars , reflects the fears of Americans in the 1950s. His most famous novel Fahrenheit 451 (1953) is one of the most prominent dystopias of the 20th century.

Bradbury was close friends with the animation specialist Ray Harryhausen and the actor Christopher Lee, who became famous for the fantastic cinema genre .

Ray Bradbury tombstone (2012)

Due to his positive youthful experiences with books and libraries, Bradbury was still committed to the preservation of public libraries in old age, especially the Ventura County Public Libraries, for example through fundraising events and regular discussions with children in libraries.

In addition to his work as a writer, he was also involved in feature films and television series , some under the pseudonyms William Elliott and Douglas Spaulding . Other pseudonyms he used are Edward Banks , DR Banat , Leonard Douglas , Leonard Spaulding and Brett Sterling .

Ray Bradbury himself selected the grave site in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, which was marked with a stone even before his death. The stone bears the inscription "Author of Fahrenheit 451".

Awards

In addition, the asteroid (9766) Bradbury was named after him in 2000 .

bibliography

The short bibliography below contains only the novels and volumes of short stories published in German translation. A detailed bibliography including the short stories can be found in the main article .

Novels
Collections
  • The Illustrated Man (1951)
    • English: The Illustrated Man. Translated by Peter Naujack. Diogenes, 1962.
  • The Golden Apples of the Sun (1953)
    • German: Don't walk through the quiet streets. Translated by Margarete Bormann. Marion von Schröder (Science Fiction & Fantastica), 1970. Also called: The golden apples of the sun. Translated by Margarete Bormann. Diogenes-Taschenbuch # 20864, ​​Zurich 1990, ISBN 3-257-20864-2 .
  • The October Country (1955)
    • German: family reunion. Translated by Jürgen Bauer and Alastair Ker. Diogenes (detebe # 21415), 1986, ISBN 3-257-21415-4 .
  • A Medicine For Melancholy (1958)
    • German: Medicine for Melancholy. Translated by Margarete Bormann. Marion von Schröder (Science Fiction & Fantastica), 1969.
  • The Machineries of Joy (1964; also: Machineries of Joy , 1969)
    • German: The Mechanisms of Joy. Translated by Peter Naujack. Diogenes (detebe # 21242), 1985, ISBN 3-257-21242-9 .
  • S Is for Space (1966)
  • I Sing the Body Electric! (1969)
  • Long After Midnight (1976)
    • German: Long after midnight. Translated by Tony Westermayr. Goldmann Science Fiction # 23278, 1979, ISBN 3-442-23278-3 .
  • Dinosaur Tales (1983)
    • German: Saurier-Stories: A Romantic Reading Pleasure; illustrated by world-famous illustrators. Translated by Andrea Kamphuis and Fredy Köpsell. Bastei-Verlag Lübbe (Bastei-Lübbe-Taschenbuch # 13538), Bergisch Gladbach 1993, ISBN 3-404-13538-5 .
  • A Memory of Murder (1984)
    • English: Death comes quickly in Mexico. Translated by Walle Bengs. Diogenes-Taschenbuch # 21641, Zurich 1988, ISBN 3-257-21641-6 .
  • The Toynbee Convector (1988)
    • English: The Laurel & Hardy Love Story and Other Tales. Translated by Otto Bayer. Diogenes, Zurich 1990, ISBN 3-257-01839-8 .
  • Quicker Than the Eye (1996)
  • Driving Blind (1997)
  • The Cat's Pajamas (2004)
    • English: The cat pajamas. Translated by Frauke Czwikla. Edition Phantasia (Phantasia Paperback Science Fiction # 1002), 2005, ISBN 3-937897-09-7 .

German compilations:

  • The golden apples of the sun. Volk und Welt # 675, 1990, ISBN 3-353-00675-3 .
  • Space Opera. Diogenes, 2008, ISBN 978-3-257-06650-0 (3 volumes in a cassette).
  • The Christmas present and other Christmas stories. Selected by Daniel Keel and Daniel Kampa. Diogenes-Taschenbuch # 23688, 2008, ISBN 978-3-257-23688-0 .

Film adaptations

documentation

  • Omnibus: "Ray Bradbury - The Illustrated Man" , directed by David Wheatley, GB 1980, German title: The evil comes on quiet feet , broadcast on NDR on July 24, 1986.

Others

  • In recognition of his work on Mars, NASA has named the Mars Science Laboratory's landing site “Bradbury Landing”.
  • In his honor, a fictional star fleet spaceship was named after him in both the Star Trek TNG episode "Die Damen Troi" (season 3, episode 24) and in the movie Star Trek Into Darkness .
  • After Bradbury's death, a Google employee officially proposed to the IETF to introduce a separate HTTP code for websites that were censored to commemorate his novel 'Fahrenheit 451', in which the possession of books is a criminal offense Victims fell and are not allowed to be displayed: Error 451.
  • The Los Angeles home, where Bradbury lived and wrote most of his work from 1958 until his death, was purchased by prominent architect Thom Mayne and his wife in 2014 for $ 1.7 million and then demolished as the couple wanted to build a new house for himself on the property. Although the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies had approved the demolition and the family had no objections, Mayne's actions provoked outraged reactions. Mayne was surprised by the public criticism of the demolition and declared that the new wall surrounding the property should bear the titles of his works in honor of Bradbury.

literature

Biographies and Monographs
  • Wilhelm Aletter: The Bradbury Chronicles. The Life of Ray Bradbury. William Morrow, New York 2005, ISBN 0-06-054581-X .
  • Harold Bloom: Ray Bradbury. New York, NY 2010, ISBN 978-1-60413-805-4 .
  • Jonathan R. Eller, William F. Touponce: Ray Bradbury. The Life of Fiction. Kent State University Press, Kent, Ohio et al. a. 2004, ISBN 0-87338-779-1 .
  • Jonathan R. Eller: Becoming Ray Bradbury. University of Illinois Press, 2011, ISBN 978-0-252-03629-3 .
  • Ben P. Indick: Ray Bradbury. Dramatist. Essays on fantastic literature 3. Borgo Press, San Bernardino 1989, ISBN 0-89370-540-3 .
  • Wayne L. Johnson: Ray Bradbury. Ungar, New York 1980, ISBN 0-8044-2426-8 .
  • David Mogen: Ray Bradbury. Twayne's United States authors series 504. Twayne, Boston, Mass. 1986, ISBN 0-8057-7464-5 .
  • Reiner Poppe: Explanations of Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, Aldous Huxley, Brave new world. King's Explanations and Materials 338. 5th, improved edition. Bange, Hollfeld 1999, ISBN 3-8044-1603-9 .
  • Robin Anne Reid: Ray Bradbury. A Critical Companion. Greenwood Press, Westport, Conn. u. a. 2000, ISBN 0-313-30901-9 .
  • Jerry Weist: Bradbury. An Illustrated Life. A Journey to Far Metaphor. William Morrow, New York, NY 2002, ISBN 0-06-001182-3 .
  • Sam Weller: The Bradbury Chronicles. The Life of Ray Bradbury. Morrow, New York 2005, ISBN 978-0-06-054581-9 .
  • Sam Weller: Listen to the Echoes. The Ray Bradbury Interviews. Melville House et al. a., New York / London 2010, ISBN 978-1-935554-03-5 .
  • Stefanie Zech: Warning of the overpowering state. The destruction of language and literature in Orwell's “Nineteen eighty-four” and Bradbury's “Fahrenheit 451”. Series of publications and materials from the Fantastic Library Wetzlar 11th Fantastic Support Group in Wetzlar, Wetzlar 1995.
Lexicons
Articles and essays
  • Dietmar Dath : A cosmic homeland poet. The American writer Ray Bradbury shaped our image of the future with works that knew that premonitions could also be something nostalgic. An obituary , in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of June 8, 2012, p. 33.
  • Thomas Nöske : Clockwork Orwell. About the cultural reality of negative utopian science fiction. Unrast, Münster 1997, ISBN 3-928300-70-9 (there: "Fahrenheit 451").

Web links

Commons : Ray Bradbury  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/06/author-ray-bradbury-dies-at-91-daughter-says.html
  2. ^ Daniel Keel, Daniel Kampa (Eds.): Ray Bradbury. Selected stories. Diogenes, Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-257-06654-8 , p. 651.
  3. ↑ A Literary Legend Fights for a Local Library ( A literary legend fights for a public library ; in Engl.)
  4. ↑ knerger.de: The grave of Ray Bradbury
  5. ↑ http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2012/aug/HQ_12-292_Mars_Bradbury_Landing.html ( NASA News, RELEASE 12-292, NASA Mars Rover Begins Driving at Bradbury Landing ; in English)
  6. ^ [1] Proposal for the labeling of websites that are not allowed to be viewed due to state censorship measures
  7. ↑ Christopher Hawthorne: Bulldoze first, apologize later: a true LA landmark , Los Angeles Times, January 16, 2015, accessed May 10, 2019
  8. ↑ Alex Sheperd: Why was Ray Bradbury's home demolished? An interview with architect Thom Mayne on the Melville House website , January 16, 2015, accessed May 10, 2019
personal data
SURNAME Bradbury, Ray
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bradbury, Ray Douglas (full name); Amory, Guy (pen name); Banat, DR (pseudonym); Reynolds, Ron (pseudonym); Rogers, Doug (pen name); Sterling, Brett (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American writer
DATE OF BIRTH 22nd August 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Waukegan
DATE OF DEATH 5th June 2012
Place of death los Angeles