The Bradbury Chronicles: The Life of Ray Bradbury – A Literary Biography with Unprecedented Access to Private Archives, Unpublished Letters, and Interviews (P.S.)

I just finished re-reading "The Bradbury Chronicles" by Sam Weller, after reading the 3-volume scholarly biography of RB by Jonathan Eller. I recommend all of these books for those who can't get enough RB, but if you only plan to read one biography, make it "The Bradbury Chronicles." Then, if you want to know more about his writing process and details of his career, dig into the Eller trilogy. Based on extensive, intimate interviews, Weller gets inside Bradbury's head and gives us his memories in near-novelistic fashion, making this is the closest thing to an RB autobiography we'll ever have. As a portrait painted from life, I don't think this book can never be surpassed. Some of the critical reviews here say it's too adulatory. That's actually a reflection of RB's boundless enthusiasm for his life and work—it's contagious, and Sam Weller caught it. The top review of this book (at the time I'm writing this) complains that it "doesn't answer 'What made Ray Bradbury tick.'" I don't understand what this reader was looking for, as "The Bradbury Chronicles" explores all of RB's loves, inspirations, and influences from his earliest years on. It tells us exactly what made RB tick! Of course, there's always a mystery at the heart of a genius—whether Shakespeare, Michelangelo, Andrew Wyeth, or Ray Bradbury—which leaves us unable to grasp how they reached such heights of imagination and skill, combined with a prolific output that makes them seem superhuman. No biography can ever explain genius. But this book lets us bask in the life of one, which makes it a joy to read. PS: Sam Weller has also published a book of interviews with RB, "Listen to the Echoes," which is a wonderful addition.

Ray Weller's biography of Ray Bradbury, the prolific author of such seminal works of sci-fi and fantasy as The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man and Something Wicked This Way Comes, grew out of an article he wrote in observance of Bradbury's 80th birthday year for Chicago Tribune magazine. In a disarming preface Weller recounts his meeting and immediate rapport with the author and his wife, and admits to being an unabashed fan. This is most apparent in Weller's reticence about the author's private life, in particular his longlasting but nevertheless troubled marriage. Nor is he critically evaluative of Bradbury's voluminous output, preferring to leave that to literary scholars. That still leaves a lot of worthwhile writing about a boy who grew up in small-town Illinois in frequent near-poverty and who never went to college. Bradbury's simple tastes and disdain for technology (he refused to fly in an airplane or use a computer for most of his life) seem at odds with his literary visions; neverthess, his gifts, ambition and discipline (for most of his life Bradbury has produced at least one short story every week) have led him to the place he occupies today as one of America's most well-known authors, credited by many other writers as a major influence on their work. The author's story has enough interest on its own that it works best when Weller steps back and simply tells it, particularly his frequently troubled relationships with luminaries in film and television such as John Huston (for whom Bradbury penned his most successful screenplay, "Moby Dick") and Rod Serling, whose "Twilight Zone" series frequently paid homage to, and possibly plagiarized, Bradbury's ideas while rejecting the author's own teleplays. When Weller attempts something more his own writing can be embarassingly naive and gushy: "Ray's speech...was fifteen minutes of love, joy and inspiration. That night, Ray Bradbury jumped off the cliff and built his wings on the way down." Such passages are happily few and far between in this by and large worthwhile book for Bradbury's many admirers.

Excellent book read. All facets of Bradbury, good and not so good, shared in this incredible book about his life, his hunger for attention, his ability to write and capture the appreciation of millions of readers across the world.

This book is a great tribute to the life and work of the author, Ray Bradbury. The author obviously knew Ray Bradbury well, but the author does sugar coat certain things about his life. He shows all of the warts and the great parts of Ray's life. It's a well rounded biography.

Ray Bradbury was a complex writer as most of us are complex in our own way. I found the book fancinating, as you follow Mr Bradberry through his life, from childhood forward. He knew at an early age that he wanted to be a writer and the book follows his journey. An excellent book about hollywood, stars he met, and the inteweaving of the publishing industry. The focal point is Ray Bradbury and stays true to that course. This is a story about Ray Bradbury, and the pages fly by and is hard to put down.

Overall, I enjoyed the book, which is written by an author who is more of a Bradbury fan than someone who is coming to Ray Bradbury the man and his material cold. Weller’s does a good job in describing Bradbury’s life in a straight forward and chronological fashion, which is both its strength in terms of ease of readability, but also its weakness with regard to probing the depths of the man. Weller is a fan of Bradbury and they ended up being personal friends as result of the biography. I too am a fan of Bradbury’s books, but not to the point that I’m not aware of his short comings. Upon finishing “The Bradbury Chronicles” one comes away dissatisfied, almost as if the book has whet the appetite with an excellent entre in preparation for an amazing main meal, which then does not appear. The book shares a chronological history, interesting anecdotes and flotsam and jetsam concerning Ray Bradbury, but it doesn’t really get at the heart of what made him tick. You leave the book wanting to know more. Secondly, the biography doesn’t delve deeply enough into Ray’s signature novels – it gives what I feel is a brief overview of his main books such as the Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man and Something Wicked Comes This Way. Weller goes into the preparation of drafts, submissions to publishers and when the books were published, but he doesn’t pull apart plots, characters, motifs or the mechanics of the books, their origins or how they were put together. When he does start to do this the book becomes extremely interesting, but he does so far too infrequently. If you are a writer, you don’t really get much of an insight into Bradbury’s tools and his inner workings in relation to his stories. In terms of a whole vision of the man himself, whilst Weller does cover some of Bradbury’s infidelities, they get only cursory mention, and again whilst you are given many facts and events, you don’t come away with a strong flavour for what Ray Bradbury was really like and what drove him. His books and short stories of course speak volumes of the man himself, but we are given little insight into their gestation, construction and execution. Weller’s biography on Bradbury is good, but it could have been much better.

Sam Weller has managed to capture the essence of the boundless Ray Bradbury. The Bradbury Chronicles is an intimate portrait of a writer who has put his stamp on our culture. It is a page-turner and a must-read for every Bradbury fan.

Bradbury didn't reveal too much about his life in print.This book he was interviewed, helpful to the author and his story is just as jaw dropping as one of his stories or films! Fans will be amazed!

thanks

If you've read and loved Ray Bradbury's many novels and short stories, then this will interest you as it reveals the man behind them all. I found it fascinating.

Very good book and in excellent condition I will recommand it to all my friends It tells in details the life of Bradbury and all about his novels