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Even when Ray Bradbury wasn't writing, his friends and adoring fans and disciples were writing about him. This book will give you a couple of hours of joy, and make you wish you had read all 700 of Bradbury's published works, seen all his movies and television productions, heard all his radio plays, seen his stage productions, heard all his recorded books and stories, attended all his lectures, seen all his media interviews. Once hooked on Bradbury, no-one goes into recovery. Ray Bradbury's works were written for future generations of optimal behaviorists who want to see the world and its people survive and thrive.

--Jim Reed, author, DAD'S TWEED COAT: SMALL WISDOMS HIDDEN COMFORTS UNEXPECTED JOYS. Learn more about Reed: www.jimreedbooks.com

It is about Ray Bradbury, who could write words in ways that let me feel the sun or the breeze, or water tinkling in the worlds he created, and make me feel afraid as I walked with his characters in the windy dark. It's in very good condition and pleases me to own.

An incredible look into the imagination of the greatest,sci-fi,thriller,horror and fantasy writer in history! Great pictures and recommended for a big fan of ray bradbury

What can I say? Historically an important book for Bradbury fans but also a visual feast for anyone and everyone!

Now that Sam Weller's "The Bradbury Chronicles:the Life of Ray Bradbury" is selling like water at the bookshops,we'll see the importance of Jerry Weist's "BRADBURY,AN ILLUSTRATED LIFE,A JOURNEY TO METAPHOR".I didn't read yet Weller's book,but I know that Frederik Pohl didn't like it.I own a copy of "Bradbury,an illustrated life...", since it appeared.And I loved it.What a gorgeous "objet d'art"!The ailing Bradbury must be proud to have inspired a book as beautiful-and good-as this one.The text by Jerry Weist is well written,professional,competent.The Foreword,by Bradbury's archivist ,collector and friend,Donn Albright,is very informative about a few of Bradbury's illustrators.The Introduction,penned by Bradbury himself,is enlightening.

As an admirer of Science-Fiction illustration and collector of SF Memorabilia ,this work was a visual feast to my eyes ,taste and, sensibility.

Called my attention:firstly,the reproductions of book and magazine(AMAZING STORIES,WONDER STORIES QUARTERLY)covers,interior illustrations,movie stills and posters(the famous one-sheet poster for the silent "THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA" and the glorious six-sheet poster designed for William Cameron Menzies's/H.G.Wells's "THINGS TO COME")and the Sunday comic strips(TARZAN,BUCK ROGERS),that influenced Bradbury's visual taste and literary preferences.Secondly,the reproductions of publications(fanzines)like IMAGINATION and FUTURIA FANTASIA(with Bradbury as editor)that enriched his beginnings as a science-fiction fan ,nurturing his creative juices and his friendship with the future great illustrator Hannes Bok,plus the moving photos made when Ray was visiting New York City during the (First)1939 WORLD SCIENCE FICTION CONVENTION financed by his buddy Forrest J. Ackerman, or made in Los Angeles ,like the amazing photo showing a youthful Ray at a meeting of the Los Angeles Science Fiction Society(LASFS) in 1940,when nineteen-year-old Bradbury was just beginning his writing career.This photo is sensational because it shows us other famous(now)members of the LASFS:FORREST J. ACKERMAN,MOROJO,RAY HARRYHAUSEN,ARTHUR K. BARNES,EDWARD E. "DOC" SMITH,CHARLES HORNIG,ROBERT HEINLEIN(seated at the table,only his face showing).Also appearing in the photo :JACK WILLIAMSON and EDMOND HAMILTON(standing near the wall in the background).The other photograph that moved me was taken(circa 1946/47)probably in Los Angeles, too. In this one , Ray appears side by side with the couple EDMOND HAMILTON/LEIGH BRACKETT and with Hamilton's sister.Thirdly,I was enraptured by the exquisite beauty of the interior B&W drawings(Oh,the marvelous B&W drawings by HANNES BOK,LEE BROWN COYE,BORIS DELGOV, VIRGIL FINLAY&LAWRENCE STERN STEVENS) illustrating Bradbury's stories in pulp magazines ;the outstanding colour paintings printed as illustrations for Bradbury's stories in the 'slicks'(ESQUIRE,THE SATURDAY EVENING POST,COLLIER'S,and so on).His stories(for instance,"A Sound of Thunder","The Beast from 20000 Fathoms","The Illustrated Man" and "Mars is Heaven")were,then, interpreted by great artists like STANLEY MELTZOFF,REN WICKS,JAMES R. BINGHAM&JAMES BAMA;the futuristic cover designs for Hardcovers ,like GEORGE BARROWS'S Arkham House(American edition) and MICHAEL AYRTON'S Hamish Hamilton(British edition) cover designs for "DARK CARNIVAL",ARTHUR LIDOV'S cover illustration for "THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES"(1950)and JOSEPH MUGNAINI'S cover painting for the british edition(1963)of "SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES" ;the catching paperback's covers for the BANTAM edition of "THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES"(1951)and the BALLANTINE editions of "FARENHEIT 451" &"THE OCTOBER COUNTRY"(1953&1956 respectively,both JOSEPH MUGNAINI'S covers).Deserve special mention the series of JOSEPH MUGNAINI'S(1912-1992) litographs,preliminary watercolor sketches,original B&W drawings and paintings inspired by Bradbury's stories and books.The italian-born MUGNAINI was considered the best interpreter of Ray's dreams.

Finally,the chapter dealing with 'EC COMICS and Ray Bradbury:The Untold Story' is precious.Jerry Weist is in his terrain here.As he says in the opening of the chapter:"The story of how Ray Bradbury came to have his writing adapted by a small,energetic company named Entertaining Comics in the 1950's is now a legendary chapter of comics history".How very true this is.I was enchanted by fantastic reproductions of originals by FRANK FRAZETTA,AL WILLIAMSON,AL FELDSTEIN(his recreations are amazing).And it is always rewarding for me to admire the fabulous adaptations&splash-page arwork by the great WALLACE(WALLY)WOOD,a real genius of the comics.'Last,but not least' I was thrilled reading and seeing the archive of photos and Film Memorabilia reproduced.My favorites:the promotional photographs of Ray with the lovely Barbara Rush during the production of "IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE"(Universal,1953);the Half-sheet &Insert posters & Window lobby card for the same film and the known(signed) One-sheet poster for "THE BEAST FROM 20.000 FATHOMS" .

Many years ago I saw "THE BEAST FROM 20.000 FATHOMS" at an old movie theatre in my home town.It was an unforgettable experience for me.A few years later ,I read the famous Bradbury's terrifying short story "MARS IS HEAVEN",the first yarn by this great writer that I read.I was definitely hooked.From then on I've been reading almost all his SF&Horror stories and a good number of his novels(novels?).

So,I love this book and I warmly recommend it.

The fantasy-science fiction literary genre has seen its fortunes wax and wane over the past several decades. I think the last big "wax" was around 25 years ago, when the first "Star Wars" movie hit. I walked into a chain bookstore around that time and they seemed to have a whole wall --- the long one --- for science fiction. Most places still have a pretty decent section, but nothing like it really deserves. Some of the really classic writers, the guys without whom there wouldn't even be a genre, get short shrift as well. Where are the Murray Leinster books? The Fritz Leiber novels? Where's the Robert Heinlein section? The Philip K. Dick shelf? And where's the bookstore dedicated to Ray Bradbury?
Someone asked me a couple of weeks ago if Bradbury was still alive. I went ballistic. Like Al Capone, I'm a peaceful man. But I have my limits. Still alive? Bradbury is still writing! If his prose lately doesn't have the fire, the bite, of such stories as "Mars In Heaven" or "The Small Assassin" or "Judgment Day" or novels like SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES or FAHRENHEIT 451, it's still better than 90 percent of the stuff out there, and besides, lemme ask you...do you do anything as well now as you did 50, 60 years, ago? Besides dribble?! It's entirely possible that if you enjoy reading it's because someone jammed a copy of a Bradbury book into your little hands, or a teacher read you a Bradbury story in high school. Still alive? He'll never die. I truly believe that, at the end of all that, is the last sound heard will be Louis Armstrong's trumpet and the last thing seen will be a sentence written by Bradbury. Hope I'm here to see if I'm right. Then again, maybe I don't want to know.
The foregoing rant will accordingly give you some vague idea of how I felt when I cracked the binding of BRADBURY: AN ILLUSTRATED LIFE. This labor of love by Jerry Weist is an absolutely indispensable compendium of Bradbury in the print and movie media, crammed into a coffeetable format book that despite its larger than regulation size can barely contain the universe of the imagination that Bradbury has been creating for your consideration and perusal for over six decades. Paperback covers, illustrations, reproductions of comic book adaptations, movie stills, advertisements --- I guarantee you that, no matter how huge a fan of Bradbury you are, there are sights in this book you've never seen before. There's an artist's adaptation of The Illustrated Man that scares the living sh...er, stuffing out of me every time I look at it, there's a shot of the cover of the pulp magazine that initially got Bradbury interested in the fantasy genre, covers of some of the fanzines he wrote for --- and published, even reproductions of some of the correspondence that occurred between Bradbury and William M. Gaines when EC Comics, which went on to publish Mad Magazine, adapted a couple of his stories without permission in a couple of their science fiction titles (it all ended well, by the way). If you can open this book the first, fiftieth, or five hundredth time without getting chills all over your body then you need to treat yourself to a neurological examination. Right now.
Not the least of this indispensable volume is Weist's accompanying text. Weist was first a fan of Bradbury's, and the relationship between the two blossomed into friendship through decades of correspondence. The marks of both fandom and friendship are present throughout BRADBURY: AN ILLUSTRATED LIFE. I approached this from the perspective of "Ah ha! I bet he left out (blank)" and I was wrong --- blessedly, happily wrong! --- on every count. Weist's account of Bradbury, his life, his work, slides in and out and among and between the illustrations, reproductions, and photographs which are the be-all and end-all of this breathtaking, breath-stealing work There is so much here that one marvels that it can be contained between binding, that it can be held in one's hands. And the price of admission would be a bargain, and worthwhile, at twice the price.
BRADBURY: AN ILLUSTRATED LIFE is one of those rarities, a book you'll spend hours at a time with, a spare few minutes, and ultimately a lifetime. If you give it to someone, they'll never forget you, and never open it without thinking of you. And if you get it...well, this will be the book you'll grab on your way out of your burning home, or when jumping off a sinking ship. No library that calls itself one should be without it.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub