Jonathan R. Eller - Becoming Ray Bradbury

Becoming Ray Bradbury

2011 by Jonathan R. Eller

All rights reserved

Manufactured in the United States of America

C 5 4 3 2 1

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Eller, Jonathan R., 1952

Becoming Ray Bradbury / Jonathan R. Eller.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-252-03629-3 (cloth : alk. paper)

1. Bradbury, Ray, 1920

2. Authors, American20th centuryBiography.

3. Science fiction, AmericanHistory and criticism.

I. Title.

PS3503.R167Z65 2011

813'.54dc22 [B] 2011008562

For Donn Albright

Amicus Librorum

Guardian of the world of Ray Bradbury

Theres the Ray Bradbury that writes, and the me that watches him. I cant believe that there are two of me, and Im the witness now, to what I did before. And I think I am so lucky that God made me in two halvesthe creator and the witness.

Ray Bradbury, October 26, 2007

Acknowledgments

In 2007 Ray Bradbury scrawled a cryptic note to himself on an early draft typescript of Becoming Ray Bradbury: R. B., luckily, doesnt know Im hiding in his body and peeking out of his eyes! For the last forty years and more, Bradbury has shown a great curiosity about the young writer he once was, and I am profoundly grateful to those who helped me recover the essential tensions and triumphs of that young mans life.

I thank Indiana University for three New Frontier Arts and Humanities traveling grants that helped defray the cost of many West Coast working sessions with Mr. Bradbury and a week in New York to study his agents archives at Columbia Universitys Butler Library. The late Don Congdon allowed me to examine the Congdon Associates portion of this archive and graciously provided an interview. Ben Camardi permitted me to examine the Harold Matson Agency deposit, which archives the earlier Bradbury-Congdon materials. Librarian Jennifer B. Lee and Bernard Crystal, Curator of Manuscripts, provided access to the Matson-Congdon deposits as well as Bradbury archives in the papers of Frederic Dannay; Im also grateful to Tara C. Craig for coordinating my access permissions and Jason Marchi for conducting advance research in the Matson-Congdon deposits as my proxy.

Gene Bundy, archivist of the Jack Williamson Science Fiction Library at Eastern New Mexico University, provided extremely valuable research support. Betty Williamson, niece of the late Jack Williamson, Gene Bundy, and Eleanor Wood, literary agent for the estates of Bradbury mentors Leigh Brackett Hamilton, Edmond Hamilton, and Jack Williamson, provided access to Bradbury letters held in the Williamson library. Brackett film scholar Pepper Smith and publisher Stephen Haffner also provided archival insights on these three important authors. I thank Cristina Concepcion of Don Congdon Associates, literary agent for the estate of Henry Kuttner, for reviewing the chapters describing Kuttners mentoring influence on Bradbury. I also thank Michael Congdon, now head of Don Congdon Associates, for reviewing chapters on the author-agent relationship that his father maintained with Bradbury for the better part of a lifetime.

The Wisconsin Historical Society provided permission for me to study the significant Bradbury materials in the papers of August Derleth. Im most grateful to Archives Reference Assistant Alexis Ernst-Treutel for providing access to my proxy researcher, Kimberly OBrien, during her long hours spent in Madison. Librarian Carolyn Davis of Syracuse Universitys Bird Library provided access to the Mercury Press archives, which include Bradburys letters to Anthony Boucher, Mick McComas, and subsequent editors of the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. She also led me to Bradbury correspondence in small but significant collections from the papers of Frederik Pohl and Forry Ackerman. Archivist Keith Call of Wheaton College provided access to letters discussing Bradbury in the papers of C. S. Lewis. Sharon Perry, special collections librarian at California State Fullertons Pollak Library, Kathy Morris, and the late Professor Willis McNelly provided research copies of Bradbury typescripts that helped me document the transformation of The Fireman into Fahrenheit 451 as I worked through several publishing projects leading up to (and including) Becoming Ray Bradbury. Im grateful as well to author and collector Robert Weinberg for providing advice on attributions and permissions involving illustrations.

I could not have rounded out this study of Ray Bradburys early life and career without access to the words and thoughts of others who knew him during those years. Christopher Bond deserves recognition for providing me with research copies of Bradburys letters to his father, the late Nelson Bond. Dennis Bradbury, daughter of Doubledays influential editor Walter Bradbury, is not related to my subject, but her encouragement has been important as I studied one of the most important author-editor relationships of Ray Bradburys early years. California journalist Gene Beley kindly provided access to his 1982 interview with artist Joseph Mugnaini. I am especially grateful to Diana Mugnaini Robinson for permission to use her fathers line art in several projects; her enthusiastic support has been amplified by Mugnaini archivist Ryan Leasher.

Comprehensive and insightful comments by William F. Nolan and Sid Stebel, two of Bradburys oldest writer-friends, came by way of multiple interviews over a number of years; I could not have documented Bradburys growing influence on postwar writers without their help, and Ill always be grateful for Bill Nolans pioneering bibliographical publications. Interviews with the late Forry Ackerman (March and October 2002) and Ray Harryhausen (October 2006) helped pinpoint still earlier influences on Bradburys development. A number of long-distance conversations with Bradbury biographer Sam Weller culminated in an April 2009 meeting, and Im most grateful for the chance to discuss the early Bradbury with him on these occasions.

Many visits with Mr. Bradbury were enriched by a number of young writers and older Bradbury friends and associates, including Doug Menville, Nik Grant, Patrick Kachurka, Jason Marchi, and Greg Miller. Useful comments on the book also came from readings by longtime Bradbury collectors Bob OMalley and Jim Welsh and by media scholar Phil Nichols of the University of Wolverhampton, U. K. Closer to home, I profited from research and technical assistance by resident faculty, staff, and graduate students involved with my home unit, the Institute for American Thought, Indiana University School of Liberal Arts (IUPUI), including Robin Condon, Joseph D. Kaposta, Diana Dial Reynolds, Johanna Resler, Amanda Barrett, and Lisa King. Professor William F. Touponce, director of the Institutes Center for Ray Bradbury Studies, read intermediate drafts and provided a great deal of insight on Bradburys relationship to Modernism, the dark fantastic, and the carnival tradition of literature.

Mr. Bradburys principal bibliographer, Professor Donn Albright of the Pratt Institute, spent many hours reading and discussing various drafts of Becoming Ray Bradbury. This book could not have recovered Bradburys emerging authorial identity if I had not had access to Donns collection and his memories, and its most appropriate that this volume is dedicated to him. During the final five years of her life, Maggie Bradbury provided insights into the life and career of her husband and encouraged me to fully explore the impact of broader literary traditions on his early development as a writer. Alexandra Bradbury, tireless coordinator of her fathers public life and sole amanuensis of his late-life creativity, eased the scheduling challenges of my research trips and made it possible to accompany her father to many public and private events over the years. I also had the good fortune to have Joan Catapano as my editor at the University of Illinois Press; Joan took time away from her duties as Associate Director to help me focus and tighten the structure of