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Annotated Bibliography
Advameg, Inc. “Ray Bradbury Biography.” Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2010. Web. 17
Jan. 2010.
The biography that notablebiographies.com wrote about Ray Bradbury was one with detailed information about his life. It talks about his influences, his rejection from the military, and much other personal information. It also talk about some of his more famous books and tells the reader about how many of Bradbury’s stories have been in television shows, like “The
Twilight Zone” and “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”.
This biography about Ray Bradbury tells us how easily influenced he was early in life, which made him one of the best sci-fi writers of all time. He was influenced by his teachers and his Aunt Neva.
Bradbury, Ray. “And the Rocket Cried out.” Bradbury Stories 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales
with an Introduction by the Author. New York: Harper Collins, 2003. 33-54. Print.
“And the Rock Cried Out” is a marvelous short story written by the well known Ray
Bradbury. The story was an interesting one that was exciting almost all the way through. The story is about this wealthy married couple that had traveled for vacation to the jungle in what I believe is Siberia. (The story was not clear on where exactly they were at.) They were supposed to leave because the white race was almost wiped out from the United States, Europe, and 2
Siberia. There was a war that caused this devastation. They traveled by a 1923 Ford that needed gas badly. They tried to leave through the border but the guards wouldn’t let them through and the husband ended up handing those 2000 pesos hoping that the two guards would let them through but instead kept the pesos and told them to find another border. This story is one that has surprising endings and events that you would never realize would happen in the real world but because of Ray Bradbury being the writer, we can understand why this simple task is made into a dangerous journey.
The short story “And the Rock Cried Out” is a story that explains Bradbury’s lust for adventure. Bradbury tells us throughout the story in a weird way that life can change at any point in time and you should always be prepared.
- - -. Interview by Meet the Writers. Barns and Noble, Summer 2003. Web. 17 Jan. 2010.
The Biography and interview (in one article) that barnesandnoble.com wrote about Ray
Bradbury was one of excitement. It talked about Awards and Metals. It also talked about the start of his working life. In the interview section of the piece he was asked questions relating to his favorite books, authors, and interests.
- - -. “An Interview with Sci-Fi Legend Ray Bradbury.” Interview by Catherine Donaldson-
Evans. Fox News, 23 Nov. 2004. Web. 17 Jan. 2010.
“An Interview with Sci-Fi Legend Ray Bradbury” is one of many interviews that he participated in. This particular interview talked mainly about how he loved space exploration ever since he was 8. Then started writing about it when he was 12. What started the fascinating interview was a question about NASA’s spirit rover’s photographs of Mars. Bradbury Loved that. Throughout the interview he kept mentioning in some shape or form that he feels young.
Ray Bradbury seemed excited throughout the interview. Bradbury was excited that
NASA’s Spirit rovers took photographs of Mars. Some of his writings are starting to become true instead of science fiction.
- - -. “Ray Bradbury.” Interview by Colin Clark. National Thetere of Scotland, 2007. Web. 3
Mar. 2010.
This is an interview of the famous Ray Bradbury that talks a lot about his different books and how he relates to them. This interview is set up like any normal interview would; it has an introduction then the questions after that.
- - -. “The Rocket.” Bradbury Stories 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales with an Introduction by
the Author. New York: Harper Collins, 2003. 16-25. Print.
The short story named “The Rocket” came out of a collection of short stories in a book 4 called “Bradbury Stories, 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales with an Introduction by the Author”.
“The Rocket” is about this family that dreams about going to mars. The family owns a junkyard and is very poor due to, too much competition. The father saves up enough money, so that one of them can go but instead he spends it on this aluminum replica of a space craft. The father makes it so when the three children and he go into the rocket it looks like they are actually flying through space. Bradbury made the father sneaky, therefore lets him make the fake spaceship without the kids knowing and everyone is satisfied.
- - -. “Season Of Disbelief.” Bradbury Stories 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales with an
Introduction by the Author. New York: Harper Collins, 2003. 25-33. Print.
The short story “Season of Disbelief” by Ray Bradbury is a story in which this 72 year old lady names Mrs. Bentley always saved everything from her past. Unfortunately, as she comes to realize, the past is not the present. There were a group of children around 7 to 10 years old and Mrs. Bentley kept telling them that she was 7 once. The children wouldn’t believe her, so she brought out some old items that belonged to the 7 year old Mrs. Bentley not the 72 year old
Mrs. Bentley. The girl’s steel the items and Mrs. Bentley decides to burn her past because of what she remembered what her husband said to her before he passed away. He said that you are you now, not you in the past.
This Story portrays Ray Bradbury perfectly. Fantasticfiction.co.uk says Ray Bradbury lives his life to the fullest every day even though he is in his 80’s. (He is now in his 90’s) The story tells us that you might have been young once but you do not stay young. 5
- - -. “The Whole Town’s Sleeping.” Bradbury Stories 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales with an
Introduction by the Author. New York: Harper Collins, 2003. 1-15. Print.
“The Whole Town’s Sleeping” by Ray Bradbury is a short story that was in the book
“Bradbury Stories, 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales With an Introduction by the Author” is one of his many works. The short story is about a normal trip to the movies that ends up bad. One girl ends up becoming murdered and the rest go to the movies to keep their mind off the insanity.
On the way home one of the girls thinks she’s being followed and when she finally goes into the house, the murderer coughed behind the couch.
Ray Bradbury has many stories in which normal events turn out to be devastating. This story shows us that Ray Bradbury thinks about how sudden good instances can turn bad.
D C Wands, and P G Wands. “Ray Bradbury (Ray Douglas Bradbury).” Editorial. Fantastic
Fiction, 2010. Web. 3 Mar. 2010.
The biography named “About Ray Bradbury” by the people from fantasticfiction.co.uk is a biography that has the same information that most biographies have about Ray Bradbury but it is in more detail than most biographies. It was a good read that was interesting. It also had one item that wasn’t in many biographies about him and that was that he was nominated for an
Academy Award and he won an Emmy. 6
Enotes. “Fahrenheit 451 Author Biography.” Editorial. Enotes, 2010. Web. 3 Mar. 2010.
The biography that the website “Enotes” wrote is one that doesn’t have much info, but it has more info about his childhood than other notable biographies. It also talks quite a bit about his different works.
This biography tells us that he had many influential people that he had when he was a child. Those influences lead to many great books and awards.
Gradesaver LLC. “Biography of Ray Bradbury (1920-).” Editorial. Grade Saver, 2010. Web. 3
Mar. 2010.
The “Biography of Ray Bradbury” is in an essay format, which includes a beginning, middle, and end. It has lots of information that for some reason isn’t found in other biographies and also the same info as well. An example is that he has never driven a car and he doesn’t trust technology such as the Internet, computers, and the ATM machines.
This biography is written in essay format and is one that shows how Ray Bradbury thinks about the technology that we have today. He believes that we should use technology that will lead us to the different planets but doesn't seem to like technology that he probably thinks might eventually lead to our demise. 7
Jepsen, Chris, and Richard Johnston. “A Brief Biography.” Ray Bradbury Online, 2001. Web. 17
Jan. 2010.
“A Brief Biography” by Chris Jepsen and Richard Johnston is a biography about one of the best writers of all time. In the biography, it talks about how Bradbury is an author, essayist, playwright, screenwriter, lecturer, poet, and visionary. It talks about his early life, which included his high school years and also talked about how he made his first pay as a writer. Also the biography talks about how Bradbury published four issues of his own fan magazine called
“Futuria Fantasia” that he wrote most of the information himself.
In this biography we find out how Ray Bradbury received his Science Fiction writer status. His science fiction writer status was explained in some detail and he had many awards and honors that were discussed. Some of his stories were attempted to be fit for television and some had succeeded.