The Bradbury Chronicles (56 page)

Page 274: “Using Julie Christie”: de Baecque and Toubiana,
Truffaut: A Biography
.

Page 274: “… [W]henever I work from a novel …”: Weist,
An Illustrated Life
.

Page 275: “Principal photography on
Fahrenheit 451
…”: de Baecque and Toubiana,
Truffaut: A Biography
.

Page 275: “I'll never be able to film courage …”: Ibid.

Page 275: “We must put up with each other …”: Ibid.

Page 276: “On the morning of January 13, 1967 …”: The date of Ray's arrival in Houston was documented in his typed notes for the
Life
story, from RB's private collection.

Page 276: “After Ray checked into …”: Ibid.

Page 276: “That evening …”: Ibid.

 

CHAPTER 23

Page 279: “Ray had sold the story rights …”: Literary purchase agreement between RB and Solitaire Productions, dated Dec. 1, 1967, from RB's private collection.

Page 280: “Ray had sold the rights to ‘In a Season of Calm Weather' …”: Letter from Ray's Hollywood agent, William Tennenat to producer Roy Silver, dated Dec. 14, 1967, from RB's private collection.

Page 282: “… the Bradburys enjoyed tennis as a spectator sport …”: Ray loved playing badminton with his daughters and enjoyed watching tennis. Ray's mother was a religious listener to Chicago Cubs baseball games when the family lived in Waukegan, so he understood the game, although he never followed it. As a teenager and a young man, he attended several USC Trojan football games with his father and his brother. Later in life, Ray occasionally watched football, preferring the games that counted: playoffs and the Super Bowl.

Page 283: “This is an effort to become immortal …”: CBS Report 7/20/69.

Page 284: “By 1971, the Bantam paperback editions …”: Bantam Books, Inc., cumulative unit sales report on Ray Bradbury's titles, dated Mar. 29, 1971, from RB's private collection.

Page 287: “I've got to hand it to you …”: Letter from Robert Gottlieb to RB, Dec. 3, 1971, from RB's private collection.

Page 287: “… but felt that the balance of the story was somehow off-kilter …”: Letter from Robert Gottlieb to RB, dated Mar. 8, 1972, from RB's private collection.

Page 291: “… To get people to come back to the core of the city …”: “Up Close: Architect Jon Jerde,”
Planning,
December 2000.

Page 291: “reached beyond the cultural elite …”: From the
Los Angeles Times
, April 9, 2000.

Page 291: “My interests have always been the ordinary, common man …”: Author interview with Jon Jerde.

Page 292: “Anybody who would think to write a story …”: Ibid.

Page 292: “… $140 million center … to be built in downtown San Diego …”: “Breaking Open the Mall,”
Newsweek,
Apr. 18, 1988.

Page 293: “[E]ven in our interior malls …”: RB, “The Aesthetics of Lostness,”
Designers West,
Nov. 1988.

Page 294: “I opened it …”: RB, “Remembrance,”
When Elephants Last in the Dooryard Bloomed
.

 

CHAPTER 24

Page 296: “By 1974, his stories had been collected in more than two thousand anthologies …”: Nolan,
The Ray Bradbury Companion
.

Page 296: “it is doubtful that the work of any American author …”: Ibid.

Page 299: “In
Fellini's Films
…”: RB,
Los Angeles Times Book Review,
Nov. 27, 1977.

Page 299: “I admire you very much …”: Letter from Federico Fellini to Ray Bradbury, dated Jan. 26, 1978, from RB's private collection.

Page 303: “We marched down the streets …”: Author interview with Bettina Bradbury.

Page 303: “Two amazing visionaries …”: Ibid.

Page 305: “If you look at the average page of any of my novels or short stories …”: “An Interview with SF Legend Ray Bradbury,”
Outré,
vol. 1, no. 4, 1995.

Page 308: “Dan Kolsrud, Clayton's assistant director …”: Author interview with Dan Kolsrud.

Page 310: “Prominent
Chicago Tribune
film critic …”: Siskel,
Chicago Tribune,
May 3, 1983.

 

CHAPTER 25

Page 310: “People ask, ‘Where do … '”: From the introduction of
The Ray Bradbury Theater
.

Page 312: “HBO nibbled …”: Author interview with Larry Wilcox.

Page 312: “… the beginning of …”: Ibid.

Page 312: “[W]e spent many late evenings …”:
Bradbury Stories: 100 of Bradbury's Most Celebrated Tales
, introduction.

Page 313: “HBO, in its infancy …”: Ibid.

Page 313: “… the series received six Cable Ace …”: Statistics from the National Cable & Telecommunications Association.

Page 313: “In total … the program was nominated …”: Ibid.

Page 313: “… regularly visiting the productions on location where they were shot in Canada, New Zealand, and France …”:
The Ray Bradbury Theater
was shot outside the United States because production costs were more affordable in these countries.

Page 314: “Ray had written mystery short stories before …”: Fifteen of Ray's early detective pulp stories were collected in the 1984 book
A Memory of Murder
. Ray was not in favor of these stories being reprinted in book form, but he had no choice. One of the few mistakes that his first agent, Julius Schwartz, made was selling the rights to Ray's stories. Ray no longer owned these detective tales and so, begrudgingly, he agreed to write an introduction to
A Memory of Murder
in exchange for getting the rights to the stories back. Per this agreement, Ray also asked that the printing of
A Memory of Murder
be limited to just a single, small run. Why didn't Ray want these stories published? Very simple: “Most of them weren't very good,” he said.

 

CHAPTER 26

Page 318: “Where did that judgment …”: RB,
Zen in the Art of Writing
.

Page 319: “Much of the text is dialogue …”:
Publishers Weekly,
Sept. 22, 1997.

Page 319: “… paints vivid word pictures of people …”:
Library Journal,
Nov. 15, 1997.

Page 319: “Most authors peak …”: Author interview with Maggie Bradbury.

Page 320: “I've been a great saver and I still am …”: Cunningham, 1961 UCLA Oral History Program transcript.

Page 322: “The whole experience has been good for me …”: Weller,
Chicago Tribune Magazine,
Aug. 13, 2000.

Page 323: “Mr. Bradbury's life work has proclaimed the incalculable …”: National Book Award Foundation.

Page 323: “Novelist, short-story writer, essayist, playwright …”: Martin, 2001 National Book Awards speech.

Page 325: “January 21, Saturday: ‘It rained glorious rain all day … '”: From RB's 1939 journal, RB's private collection.

Page 330: “We're going to make it …”: Weller,
Chicago Tribune Magazine,
Aug. 13, 2000.

Page 330: “The thing that makes me happy …”: Ibid.

Page 330: “Moore even felt that his title …”: E-mail from Michael Moore to author.

Page 332: “Upon its release,
Fahrenheit 9/11
broke records …”:
Daily Variety,
Sept. 8, 2004.

“An intimate and thorough vicarious journey.... Bradbury's life has been fascinating, and Weller has done a comprehensive job of narrating it.... Weller does an amazing job of tying Bradbury's memories to the plots and themes of many of his stories. Rating: A–”

—
Rocky Mountain News

“Excellent.... [A] detailed but lively book.... Both admiring and honest.... [An] impressive biography.”

—
National Review

“[I]f
The Bradbury Chronicles
is exhaustive, it is never exhausting, and each anecdote adds light and color to the portrait [Weller] has painted of a writer of real accomplishment. By the end of the book, we are able to see the inner workings of the remarkably imaginative mind ticking away inside Bradbury's best-loved work.”

—
Los Angeles Times

“
The Bradbury Chronicles
[is] something rarely seen in the world of biography: an authorized, totally readable, fantastic story of a man's unique life.”

—
Bookslut.com

“Bradbury granted literary journalist and lifelong fan [Sam] Weller unprecedented access to his private life and private archive, and Weller has repaid the favor with a compulsively readable account of an exceptionally prescient, innovative, eccentric, and dedicated writer who has electrified the imaginations of generations of readers.”

—
Booklist
(starred review)

“The first major and most welcome biography [of Ray Bradbury].... A fine limning of the life.”

—
Boston Globe

“Weller puts in focus the wide-ranging impact of Bradbury's literary career.... A thorough portrait of … a writer obviously admired.”

—
Richmond Times-Dispatch

“A pleasure to read; Weller probes Bradbury's work and takes the time to address small but amusing details.... Highly recommended.”

—
Library Journal

“[Weller] does the rich material of Bradbury's life thus far meticulous justice … [and] creates a vivid portrait of a basically shy man.... Seeking literary immortality through his work, Bradbury has certainly been helped along in his quest by Weller's accurate, interesting, and very timely biography.”

—
Seattle Times

“Snappy.... A proficient study of a prodigious talent still going strong.”

—
Kirkus Reviews

“A lively biography of a literary icon.”

—
Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“Ebullient.... Highly readable.... This adoring portrait will satisfy most Bradbury fans.”

—
Publishers Weekly

“Almost a seamless read. Weller's style resembles Bradbury's: detailing, emotional, and personal relationships. This book is important because it reveals how Bradbury wants to be remembered.”

—
Philadelphia Inquirer

Unless otherwise credited, all photographs courtesy of Ray Bradbury.

A hardcover edition of this book was published by William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

P.S.™ is a trademark of HarperCollins Publishers.

THE BRADBURY CHRONICLES
. Copyright © 2005 by Sam Weller. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

First Harper Perennial edition published 2006.

The Library of Congress has catalogued the hardcover edition as follows:

Weller, Sam.

    The Bradbury chronicles : the life of Ray Bradbury /

      Sam Weller.— 1st ed.

      p. cm.

    Includes bibliographical references and index.

    ISBN 0-06-054581-X

    Epub Edition © SEPTEMBER 2012 ISBN: 9780062245069

    1. Bradbury, Ray, 1920–  2. Science fiction, American—History and criticism.  3. Authors, American—20th century—Biography.  4. Science fiction—Authorship.  I. Title.

  PS3503 R167Z94 2005

  813'.54—dc22

2004059491

ISBN-10: 0-06-054584-4 (pbk.)

ISBN-13: 978-0-06-054584-0 (pbk.)

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