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01
After finishing high school, he did not have the money to attend college, so he went to his local library to read three nights a week. Over ten years, he read all the books in the library and considered that his higher education.
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02
In 1950, comic-book publisher William M. Gaines published several of his stories without permission; Bradbury wrote to praise the artwork and politely requested his royalty payment, which he received.
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03
He was the great-great-great grandson of Mary Bradbury, a woman tried in the Salem Witch Trials in 1692 who escaped execution.
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04
Despite the anti-censorship message of Farenheit 451, Bradbury continually fought his publisher’s censors who wanted to alter the book’s language and tone, noting the irony was lost on them.
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05
He visited the set of Star Trek 1966 as a potential writer; crew members remembered him as polite, but he never intended to join the writing team. He remained friends with creator Gene Roddenberry until Roddenberry’s death on October 24, 1991.
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06
The USS Bradbury, a ship in Star Trek Into Darkness 2013, was a nod to his legacy.
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07
Though considered a great science-fiction writer, he had a fear of flying and driving. He never learned to drive and did not fly in an airplane until October 1982.
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08
His original title for Fahrenheit 451 was The Fireman. He asked his local fire department for the temperature at which paper burns, was told 451 degrees Fahrenheit, reversed the order, and used that as the title.
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09
As a young boy, a friend ridiculed his collection of science-fiction and comic books and heckled him into throwing them away. A day later, Bradbury was heartbroken and immediately rebuilt his collection.
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10
He wrote the original manuscript of Fahrenheit 451 on a rented typewriter in a public library from handwritten notes and outlines. It first appeared in shortened form in Galaxy magazine and later in full serial format in Playboy magazine.
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11
In the 1920s, his mother took him to see silent films; he first saw Lon Chaney’s The Phantom of the Opera 1925 when he was three years old, and it had a lifelong impact on him.
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12
He voiced displeasure at documentary filmmaker Michael Moore for appropriating the title Fahrenheit 451 for Fahrenheit 9/11 2004, though Bradbury himself had borrowed titles from George Orwell and Charles Dickens.
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13
A series of short stories his publisher said would never sell were grouped together into a novel titled The Martian Chronicles; he was paid just $500 for it.
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14
When he was a baby, his mother tied him to an apple tree so she could keep an eye on him while hanging laundry.
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15
As a bedtime story for each of his daughters, he read nightly installments of Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle.
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16
The inspiration for his short story The Pedestrian came after he and a friend were stopped by police while walking one night; the police deemed their behavior suspicious and let them go with a warning.
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17
Father of four daughters: Susan, Ramona, Bettina, and Alexandra Bradbury.
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18
Inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 1999.
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19
He and animator Chuck Jones were close friends for more than 50 years.
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20
A technophobe, he never obtained a driver’s license, never used a personal computer, and did not own a television until his final years. He wrote on a manual typewriter until a stroke in 1999, after which he dictated his manuscripts.
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21
Italian director Federico Fellini was a hero of his; when they first met, Fellini embraced him and said, My twin! My twin! They became great friends but never collaborated. Bradbury claimed his love of Halloween was soured after Fellini died on October 31, 1993.
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22
National Public Radio’s Bradbury 13 1984 was a 13-episode program based on many of his stories.
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23
He was awarded Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters by French culture minister Frédéric Mitterrand in 2007.
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24
When his wife started having children, he stated, It literally scared the hell out of me.
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25
Son of Leonard Spaulding Bradbury, a linesman with the Waukegan Bureau of Power and Light, and Esther Marie Moberg.
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26
Following his death, he was interred at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles. An asteroid discovered on February 24, 1992, was named 9766 Bradbury in his honor, and an impact crater on the Moon was named Dandelion by the Apollo 15 astronauts after his novel Dandelion Wine 1957.
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27
There is a noted irony in the names of two characters in Fahrenheit 451: Montag is also the name of a paper mill, and Faber is a manufacturer of pencils; Bradbury insisted this was unintentional.
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28
He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6644 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California, on April 1, 2002.
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29
While best known for science fiction, he was a huge fan of comedians Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, attending Sons of the Desert fan club meetings and writing short stories about them, including Another Fine Mess set on the steps from The Music Box 1932.
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30
As a young man, he once sold newspapers on a Los Angeles street corner.
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31
Recipient of a 2004 US National Medal of Arts, awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts.
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32
Did not eat a regular meal with his family until he was six years old; his father got tired of him drinking from a baby bottle and smashed it in the sink.
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33
Ray Bradbury was well-known in science fiction and fantasy circles for writing stories of nostalgia, much like Jack Finney and, to a lesser extent, Alfred Bester.
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34
In the documentary Chaplin’s Goliath 1996, a Rosedale Cemetery spokeswoman mistakenly claims Bradbury is interred there.
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35
Tribute was paid in the music video F Me, Ray Bradbury by Rachel Bloom; he confirmed seeing the video and met with Bloom.
