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Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451. Ray Bradbury. Ray Bradbury. American novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright, screenwriter and poet. Born August 22, 1920 in Waukegan, Illinois. He graduated from a Los Angeles high school in 1938.

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Fahrenheit 451

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  1. Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury

  2. Ray Bradbury • American novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright, screenwriter and poet. • Born August 22, 1920 in Waukegan, Illinois. • He graduated from a Los Angeles high school in 1938. • He became a "student of life," selling newspapers on L.A. street corners from 1938 to 1942. • He became a full-time writer in 1943.

  3. His reputation as a writer of courage and vision was established with the publication of The Martian Chronicles in 1950, which describes the first attempts of Earth people to conquer and colonize Mars, and the unintended consequences. • Next came The Illustrated Man and then, in 1953, Fahrenheit 451, which many consider to be Bradbury's masterpiece. • In all, Bradbury has published more than thirty books, close to 600 short stories, and numerous poems, essays, and plays.

  4. Ray Bradbury's work has been included in four Best American Short Story collections. • He has been awarded the O. Henry Memorial Award, the Benjamin Franklin Award, the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement, the Grand Master Award from the Science Fiction Writers of America, the PEN Center USA West Lifetime Achievement Award, among others. • In November 2000, the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters was conferred upon Mr. Bradbury at the 2000 National Book Awards Ceremony in New York City.

  5. Ray Bradbury has never confined his vision to the purely literary. • He has been nominated for an Academy Award (for his animated film Icarus Montgolfier Wright), and has won an Emmy Award (for his teleplay of The Halloween Tree). • He adapted sixty-five of his stories for television's Ray Bradbury Theater. • He was the creative consultant on the United States Pavilion at the 1964 New York World's Fair.

  6. Bradbury helped design the geodesic sphere and pen the original story of the attraction Spaceship Earth.

  7. Married since 1947, Mr. Bradbury and his wife Maggie lived in Los Angeles with their numerous cats. • Together, they raised four daughters. • Maggie passed away in November of 2003. • Bradbury is still alive and living in Los Angeles.

  8. On the occasion of his 80th birthday in August 2000, Bradbury said, "The great fun in my life has been getting up every morning and rushing to the typewriter because some new idea has hit me. The feeling I have every day is very much the same as it was when I was twelve. In any event, here I am, eighty years old, feeling no different, full of a great sense of joy, and glad for the long life that has been allowed me. I have good plans for the next ten or twenty years, and I hope you'll come along."

  9. Historical Context • Fahrenheit 451 was written at a time when censorship was very much a reality both abroad and at home. • In Nazi Germany, Hitler had tried to control the thoughts of the masses by burning thousands of books that he saw as a threat to his regime. • In the Communist Soviet Union, Stalin did much the same thing, censoring materials that reflected badly on him or his government.

  10. The American response to Communism also involved censorship. • Colleges were asked to submit the textbooks they used to the House Un-American Activities Committee for approval. • Writers, filmmakers, and other artists were blacklisted for suspected Communist tendencies. • Libraries came under attack not only for owning copies of the “Communist Manifesto” and other books about Communism but also for owning books by authors whose loyalty to the United States was considered suspect.

  11. In 1953, books in U.S. government libraries overseas were removed and in some cases burned in response to a claim by Senator Joseph McCarthy that they were “subversive of American interests.” • The Atomic Age: As tensions escalated between the United States and the Soviet Union throughout the 1950s, many people feared that the world was one step away from nuclear war. Post-apocalyptic fiction began to emerge at this time.

  12. Television: Television sets first became widely available to the general public in the 1950s. Television has entertained and informed viewers for decades, but it has also been criticized for presenting a distorted view of the world and for taking time away other activities like reading, exercise, conversation, and family time. • Science Fiction & Fantasy: The 1950s saw science fiction and fantasy emerge into the mainstream of popular culture. • Classic science fiction and fantasy books of the decade include I, Robot by Isaac Asimov, Childhood’s End by Arthur Clarke, Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein, and The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. Popular films include The Day the Earth Stood Still, Forbidden Planet, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and This Island Earth. The TV series The Twilight Zone first aired in 1959.

  13. References • http://www.raybradbury.com/ • http://www.northbrook.info/lib_F451_background.php

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