April 12, 2005
Ray Bradbury, author of the classic Fahrenheit 451 and many other enduring science fiction titles, delivers the lecture Predicting the Past, Remembering the Future at UCSB Campbell Hall
Summary Facts:
- Ray Bradbury
- Predicting the Past, Remembering the Future
- Bradbury is universally acclaimed as one of the greatest science fiction writers
- His classic books include Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, Something Wicked This Way Comes and The Illustrated Man
- Thursday, May 19 / 8 pm / UCSB Campbell Hall
- General public: $15 / UCSB students: $10
- Tickets/Information: UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535
Ray Bradbury, one of the giants of science fiction, will present the engaging lecture Predicting the Past, Remembering the Future on Thursday, May 19 at 8 pm at UCSB Campbell Hall. Bradbury established his reputation as a writer of courage and vision with the publication of The Martian Chronicles in 1950, which describes the first attempts of Earth people to conquer and colonize Mars, and the unintended consequences. In 1953 Bradbury published what many consider to be his masterpiece Fahrenheit 451, a scathing indictment of censorship set in a future world where the written word is forbidden. In an attempt to salvage their history and culture, a group of rebels memorize entire works of literature and philosophy as their books are burned by the totalitarian state. Other works include The October Country, Dandelion Wine, A Medicine for Melancholy, Something Wicked This Way Comes, I Sing the Body Electric!, Quicker Than the Eye, and Driving Blind. In all, Bradbury has published more than thirty books, close to 600 short stories, and numerous poems, essays and plays. His short stories have appeared in more than 1,000 school curriculum “recommended reading” anthologies. The Washington Post writes, “Almost no one can imagine a time or place without the fiction of Ray Bradbury....His stories and novels are part of the American language.”
Ray Bradbury’s work has been included in four Best American Short Story collections. He has been awarded the O. Henry Memorial Award, the Benjamin Franklin Award, the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement, the Grand Master Award from the Science Fiction Writers of America, the PEN Center USA West Lifetime Achievement Award, among others. In November 2000, the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters was conferred upon Bradbury at the 2000 National Book Awards Ceremony in New York City. In 2004 he was awarded the National Medal of Arts.
Ray Bradbury has never confined his vision to the purely literary. He has been nominated for an Academy Award (for his animated film “Icarus Montgolfier Wright”), and has won an Emmy Award (for his teleplay of The Halloween Tree). He adapted sixty-five of his stories for television’s Ray Bradbury Theater, which originally aired on HBO from 1985–1992. He was the creative consultant on the United States Pavilion at the 1964 New York World’s Fair. In 1982 he created the interior metaphors for the Spaceship Earth display at Epcot Center, Disney World, and later contributed to the conception of the Orbitron space ride at Euro-Disney, France.
Bradbury was born August 22, 1920 in Waukegan, Illinois. He graduated from a Los Angeles high school in 1938. Although his formal education ended there, he became a self-proclaimed “student of life,” selling newspapers on Los Angeles street corners from 1938 to 1942, spending his nights in the public library and his days at the typewriter. He became a full-time writer in 1943, and contributed numerous short stories to periodicals before publishing the collection Dark Carnival in 1947.
“Ray Bradbury’s most significant contribution to our culture is showing us that the imagination has no foreseeable boundaries,” claims director Steven Spielberg. “Today we need Ray Bradbury’s gifts more than ever, and his stories have made him immortal.”
For more information about Ray Bradbury, see his official website at www.raybradbury.com.
Courtesy of Borders, books by Ray Bradbury will be available for purchase and signing at the event.
Ray Bradbury is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures with support from the Beth Chamberlin Endowment for Cultural Understanding, which brings speakers from diverse cultures to the campus and community to share their differing ideas and philosophies, in the hope of developing global understanding and respect.
Tickets for the event are $15 for the general public and $10 for UCSB students, who must show valid ID when purchasing tickets and at the door. Tickets are on sale now and can also be purchased at the door, if still available.
For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.
Editor: For photos, please call
George Yatchisin at (805) 893-3494.