Origins and autobiographical references

Books and love

Ray Bradbury, the author of Fahrenheit 451, is originally from Waukegan in the state of Illinois. As a child he liked to draw and was already interested in science fiction. The young Ray Bradbury read very early the fantasy and adventure books of Jules Verne, Aldous Huxley, Edgar Allan Poe, and H. G. Wells. When Ray was 14 years old , the family moved to Los Angeles. There, the future author attended high school and then devoted himself to self-study in the library.

The state of Illinois, where the author was born, can be considered the place of action of the novel Fahrenheit 451, even though at no point is it stated in which city exactly the novel is set. The city of Los Angeles is also mentioned in the novel (see the Setting section ).

Ray Bradbury began writing short stories during his school years. He wrote a short story every week and successfully submitted them to newspapers and magazines. In 1937, he became a member of the "Los Angeles Science Fiction League" and his school's poetry club. A year later he graduated from high school. He was eighteen years old at this time. 

After leaving school, Bradbury spent a lot of time reading. The author never graduated from university: the libraries educated him, he explains. He sold his first professional story, "The Pendulu...