BRADBURY: AN ILLUSTRATED LIFE, by Jerry Weist, Introduction by Ray Bradbury, Wm. Morrow, 195 pages, $34.95.
Technically, this is a coffee-table book, but it is also a catalog, a biography, a bibliography and a loving tribute to Ray Bradbury, the prolific genre writer who helped shape the fabric of today's society.
Bradbury's tales have found their way into radio, television, film, comics and theater, and they have left behind a great deal of visual material. In "Ray Bradbury: An Illustrated Life," Weist has chronicled the residual art as a documentation of Bradbury's works, from his early days as a science-fiction fan to the current, late-stages of his life.
The art runs the gamut — from Buck Rodgers newspaper strips that inspired the young Bradbury, to a "Cliffs Notes" cover of the author's works. to program covers from his stage plays.
By assembling art produced for — and inspired by — the author's written word, Weist illuminates both the creations and the creator. While reading this book cannot replace reading the works themselves, it offers hundreds of artistic interpretations that can be scanned and absorbed by the reader, even one who only casually flips through the pages. Those who have done their reading will feel the fantastical journeys, the fateful character choices and mankind's wisdoms, follies and possibilities all over again.
The book's chapters, chronological from Bradbury's childhood to the present, introduce readers to the early inspirations that shaped much of his imagination. Themes presented by H.G. Wells ("The Invisible Man"), L. Frank Baum ("The Wizard of Oz"), Jules Verne ("From the Earth to the Moon") and Edgar Rice Burroughs ("Tarzan") echo throughout the Bradbury canon.
Along the way, the volume makes stops in various mediums, with the most fascinating and text-heavy section belonging to comic books of the 1950s. Bradbury's love of the medium, although well-known by comic aficionados, may come as a surprise to those who remember him only from high-school literature classes. His contributions came during the McCarthy era, when comics were hit hard as a major "contributor to juvenile delinquency." This environment gave birth to "Fahrenheit 451," which remains one of the author's landmark works.
Other highlights include selections of Bradbury's own art and poetry, providing clear evidence that while he may not churn out the pages as he once did, the author is still active and mentally acute. As a whole, the volume succeeds as an entertaining chronicle of a literary icon.
Weist sums it up: "To tell the story of Ray Bradbury's life in pictures is to tell the story of American popular culture. Although Bradbury's work is grounded in a humanism that harks back to Walt Whitman and Henry David Thoreau, it also possesses a skepticism that appeals to modern readers."
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