Ray Bradbury, American novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright, screenwriter and poet, was born August 22, 1920 in Waukegan, Illinois. He graduated
from a Los Angeles high school in 1938. Although his formal education ended there, he
became a "student of life," selling newspapers on L.A. street corners from 1938 to 1942,
spending his nights in the public library and his days at the typewriter. He became a
full‐time writer in 1943, and contributed numerous short stories to periodicals before
publishing a collection of them,Dark Carnival, in 1947.
Married since 1947, Mr. Bradbury and his wife Maggie lived in Los Angeles with their
numerous cats. Together, they raised four daughters and had eight grandchildren. Sadly, Maggie passed away in
November of 2003.
In all, Bradbury has published more than thirty books, close to 600 short stories, and numerous poems, essays, and
plays. His short stories have appeared in more than 1,000 school curriculum "recommended reading" anthologies.
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, a scathing indictment of censorship set in a future world where the written word is
forbidden. In an attempt to salvage their history and culture, a group of rebels memorize entire works of literature
and philosophy as their books are burned by the totalitarian state.
The World Around Bradbury
Germany:
Book burning has a long and dark history; and perhaps the most
famous of these events, the burning of books under the Nazi
regime on May 10, 1933. University students burned upwards
of 25,000 volumes of “un‐German” books, presaging an era of
state censorship and control of culture. On the evening of May
10, in most university towns, right‐wing students marched in torchlight parades “against the un‐German spirit.” At
the meeting places, students threw the pillaged and “unwanted” books onto bonfires with great ceremony,
band‐playing, and so‐called “fire oaths.” Among the authors whose books student leaders burned that night
numbered well‐known socialists such as Bertolt Brecht and August Bebel; the founder of the concept of
communism, Karl Marx; “corrupting foreign influences,” such as American author Ernest Hemingway. The fires also
consumed the works of international best‐selling author Erich Maria Remarque, whose unflinching description of
war, All Quiet on the Western Front, Nazi ideologues vilified as "a literary betrayal of the soldiers of the World War."
Other writers included on the blacklists were American authors Jack London, Theodore Dreiser, and Helen Keller,
whose belief in social justice encouraged her to champion the disabled, pacifism, improved conditions for
industrial workers, and women's voting rights.
America: In 1947, President Truman ordered background checks of every civilian in service to the government. When Alger
Hiss, a high‐ranking State Department official was convicted on espionage charges, fear of communists intensified.
Senator Joe McCarthy capitalized on national paranoia by
proclaiming that communist spies were hiding in plain sight.
An atmosphere of fear of world domination by communists hung
over America in the postwar years. There were fears of a nuclear
holocaust based on the knowledge that the Soviet Union exploded its
first A‐bomb in 1949. That same year, China, the world's most
populous nation, became communist. Half of Europe was under
Joseph Stalin's influence, and every time Americans read their
newspapers there seemed to be a new atomic threat.
On February 9, 1950, McCarthy proclaimed that he was aware of 205
card‐carrying members of the Communist Party who worked for the
United States Department of State. McCarthy soon began to attract
headlines, and the Senate asked him to make his case. On February 20, 1950, McCarthy addressed the Senate and
made a list of dubious claims against suspected communists. He cited 81 cases that day. He skipped several
numbers, and for some cases repeated the same flimsy information. He proved nothing, but the Senate called for a
full investigation. McCarthy was in the national spotlight.
After reading this article, what do you think inspired Bradbury to write Fahrenheit 451? On a separate sheet of paper, write at least ONE paragraph explaining your theory.
DUE MONDAY