They eventually settled in Los Angeles in 1934 when Bradbury was 14.

While in Tucson, Bradbury attended Amphi Junior High School and Roskruge Junior High School. The Bradbury family lived in Tucson, Arizona, during 1926–19–1933 while their father pursued employment, each time returning to Waukegan. In Bradbury's fiction, 1920s Waukegan becomes 'Green Town', Illinois.īradbury as a senior in high school, 1938 This period provided foundations for both the author and his stories. An aunt read him short stories when he was a child. He was given the middle name 'Douglas' after actor Douglas Fairbanks.īradbury was surrounded by an extended family during his early childhood and formative years in Waukegan. Early life īradbury was born on August 22, 1920, in Waukegan, Illinois, to Esther (née Moberg) Bradbury (1888–1966), a Swedish immigrant, and Leonard Spaulding Bradbury (1890–1957), a power and telephone lineman of English ancestry. The New York Times called Bradbury 'the writer most responsible for bringing modern science fiction into the literary mainstream'. Many of his works were adapted into television and film productions as well as comic books. He also wrote and consulted on screenplays and television scripts, including Moby Dick and It Came from Outer Space. Most of his best known work is speculative fiction, but he also worked in other genres, such as the coming of age novel Dandelion Wine (1957) and the fictionalized memoir Green Shadows, White Whale (1992). īradbury wrote many works and is widely known by the general public for his novel Fahrenheit 451 (1953) and his short-story collections The Martian Chronicles (1950) and The Illustrated Man (1951). One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of modes, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery, and realistic fiction. Ray Douglas Bradbury ( / ˈ b r æ d ˌ b ɛ r i/ August 22, 1920 – June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter.

Bradbury green town