Next came The Illustrated Man and then, in 1953, Fahrenheit 451, which many consider to be Bradbury's masterpiece, a scathing indictment of censorship set in a future world where the written word is forbidden. His reputation as a writer of courage and vision was established 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. He became a full-time writer in 1943, and contributed numerous short stories to periodicals before publishing a collection of them, Dark Carnival, in 1947. street corners from 1938 to 1942, spending his nights in the public library and his days at the typewriter. Although his formal education ended there, he became a 'student of life,' selling newspapers on L.A. He graduated from a Los Angeles high school in 1938. Ray Douglas Bradbury, American novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright, screenwriter and poet, was born Augin Waukegan, Illinois. These were soon inhabited by the strange native beings, with their caged flowers and birds of flame. People brought their old prejudices with them – and their desires and fantasies, tainted dreams. The shape-changing Martians thought they were native lunatics and duly locked them up.īut more rockets arrived from Earth, and more, piercing the hallucinations projected by the Martians. Those few that survived found no welcome on Mars. Most succumbed to a disease they called the Great Loneliness when they saw their home planet dwindle to the size of a fist. The Martian Chronicles tells the story of humanity’s repeated attempts to colonize the red planet. Now part of the Voyager Classics collection.

The strange and wonderful tale of man’s experiences on Mars, filled with intense images and astonishing visions.

The martian chronicles books