Bradbury (1920-2012) was an American short story writer, novelist, and screenwriter who wrote 27 novels and more than 600 short stories in his 60-plus year career. In its obituary for Bradbury, the New York Times wrote that he “would appear near the top of any list of major science fiction writers of the 20th century.”

Bradbury is best known for works including Fahrenheit 451, Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Martian Chronicles, and his coming-of-age novel Dandelion Wine. In 2004, he received the National Medal of Arts, and in 2007 he received a Pulitzer Citation for his lifetime body of work. He is widely honored, with the Ray Bradbury Award for Excellence in Screenwriting being presented yearly. Several luminaries of speculative fiction, including Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, and the producer of The Twilight Zone Rod Serling, have cited him as a crucial influence on their work.