Most famous for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and his fantasy-themed short stories, Ray Bradbury was born on August 22, 1920.
Bradbury’s earlier writings were strongly influenced by writings of Edgar Allen Poe, especially in the horror genre. Everyday comics, Edgar Rice Burroughs, John Donne, Alexander Pope, and even the Bible influenced his stories, especially evident in Fahrenheit 451; wherein there are many subtle references made to them.

From 1938, Bradbury started publishing stories for his self-started fanzine, Futuria Fantasia, and other fanzines.
One of his first successful works was Homecoming, a short story published in Mademoiselle magazine, which eventually placed in the O. Henry Prize Stories of 1947.
In 1950, Bradbury’s famous short story collection The Martian Chronicles, which weaves together a story of the extinction of a martian race paralleling with the extinction of humans, was first published. This series contains one of his most famous short stories, There Will Come Soft Rains.
In 1951, The Illustrated Man, another series of fantasy-themed short stories, was first published. His other famous works include Dandelion Wine(1957), and Something Wicked This Way Comes(1962).

Though most people deem him to be a science-fiction author, especially based upon the recurring theme of aliens and dystopia, Bradbury refuted that label in a 1999 interview: “First of all, I don’t write science fiction. I’ve only done one science fiction book and that’s Fahrenheit 451, based on reality. It was named so to represent the temperature at which paper ignites. Science fiction is a depiction of the real. Fantasy is a depiction of the unreal. So Martian Chronicles is not science fiction, it’s fantasy. It couldn’t happen, you see? That’s the reason it’s going to be around a long time – because it’s a Greek myth, and myths have staying power.”

Bradbury passed away in 2012, at the age of 91. His writing career spanned over 70 years.

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