Ray Bradbury

Ray Douglas Bradbury was raised in Waukegan, Illinois, and moved with his family to Los Angeles during the Great Depression. Unable to afford college, he spent days reading in public libraries, selling newspapers to buy typewriter ribbon, and publishing stories in pulp magazines.

Bradbury rose to literary fame with 'The Martian Chronicles' (1950) and 'Fahrenheit 451' (1953), written on a pay-typewriter in the basement of UCLA's Powell Library, warning against book burning, state censorship, and electronic distraction. Over a seventy-year career, he wrote over 500 published works and received a special citation from the Pulitzer Prize board in 2007.