Born in Illinois, in 1920, Ray Bradbury remains one of the most prestigious authors of science fiction in the world. His works include such noteworthy titles as The Illustrated Man, Dandelion Wine and The Machineries of Joy. Fahrenheit 451, his most celebrated work, continues to be one of the bestselling science fiction novels over fifty years after its first publication.
Bradbury’s diverse imaginative talents led him to be appointed as Idea Consultant for the United States Pavilion in 1963 and throughout his life he was an enthusiastic playwright, working for many years at the Pandemonium Theatre Company in Los Angeles and later the Fremont Centre Theatre in South Pasadena.
Bradbury was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, he received the National Medal of Arts and was made the 10th SFWA Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America. For his outstanding contribution to the genre he received the Sir Arthur Clarke Special Award, and a special citation by the Pulitzer Prize jury ‘for his distinguished, prolific, and deeply influential career as an unmatched author of science fiction and fantasy.’
Ray Bradbury died in Los Angeles, California, on June 5, 2012, at the age of 91.
