One of Bradbury's best-known works,
the novel Fahrenheit 451, was released in 1953 and is set in a
future when the written word is
forbidden. Resisting a totalitarian state which burns all the books, a
group of rebels memorize entire
works of literature and philosophy.
Ray Bradbury's work has been included
in the Best American Short Story collections (1946, 1948, and
1952). He has been awarded the
O. Henry Memorial Award, the Benjamin Franklin Award in 1954, the
Aviation-Space Writer's Association
Award for best space article in an American Magazine in 1967, the
World Fantasy Award for lifetime
achievement, and the Grand Master Award from the Science Fiction
Writers of America. His animated
film about the history of flight, Icarus Montgolfier Wright, was
nominated for an academy award,
and his teleplay of The Halloween Tree won an Emmy.
Ray Bradbury's writing has been
honored in many ways, but perhaps the most unusual was when an
Apollo astronaut named the Dandelion
Crater on the Moon after Bradbury's novel, Dandelion Wine.
Outside of his literary achievements,
Bradbury was the idea consultant and wrote the basic scenario for the
United States Pavilion at the 1964
New York World's Fair. He conceived the metaphors for Spaceship Earth,
EPCOT, Disney World, and he contributed
to the conception of the Orbitron space ride at Euro-Disney,
France. He was creative consultant
for the Jon Jerde Partnership, the architectural firm that blueprinted
the
Glendale Galleria, The Westside
Pavilion in Los Angeles, and Horton Plaza in San Diego.
Ray Bradbury currently lives in
California and is still actively writing and lecturing.
