Ray Bradbury – Bio

by Chris Jepsen & Richard Johnston

Ray Douglas Bradbury was born in Waukegan, Illinois, on August 22, 1920.

He was the third son of Leonard Spaulding Bradbury and Esther Marie Moberg Bradbury. They gave him the middle name “Douglas,” after the actor, Douglas Fairbanks.

He never lived up to his namesake’s reputation for swashbuckling adventure on the high seas. Instead, Bradbury’s great adventures would take place behind a typewriter, in the realm of imagination. Today, as an author, essayist, playwright, screenwriter, lecturer, poet and visionary, Ray Bradbury is known as one of America’s greatest creative geniuses.

Bradbury’s early childhood in Waukegan was characterized by his loving extended family. These formative years provided the foundations for both the author and his stories.

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