Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury, who was born in 1920, was a longtime resident of Los Angeles, but, after he died in 2012, his home there was sold and his belongings were sent to Waukegan, Illinois, where he grew up. So the beloved writer and library advocate’s Southern California home is not a tour-able landmark, but a visit to our Los Angeles Central Library page will take you to a celebrated literary place he cherished and where he often worked.
An aspiring writer and fan, whom Bradbury befriended in his twilight years, recounted personal experiences with the writer here: https://www.huffpost.com.
A bibliography of the author’s books can be found here: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/b/ray-bradbury.
“Science fiction is any idea that occurs in the head and doesn’t exist yet, but soon will, and will change everything for everybody, and nothing will ever be the same again. As soon as you have an idea that changes some small part of the world you are writing science fiction. It is always the art of the possible, never the impossible.” — Ray Bradbury
Waukegan
A small park in Waukegan is named after the author. It was designated as an American Library Association Literary Landmark on March 16, 2019, according to the Chicago Tribune, and is located at 41 North Park Avenue. It is approximately a block from the author’s boyhood home, which is not open to the public, in the mid-size town of Waukegan.
A statue honoring his birthday was unveiled outside the Waukegan Public Library in 2019. Read the article here: https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs.
Sadly, a museum honoring his memory closed in May 2023, though it did so with a plan for his personal books and artifacts to be housed at the Carnegie Library.
This is the first stop on the Illinois Author Adventures Trail.
Patricia Smart
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