Bradbury: An Illustrated Life: A Journey to Far Metaphor [Hardcover]

Jerry Weist (Author), Ray Bradbury (Introduction), Donn Albright (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2002

A beautifully illustrated, oversized "visual biography" of American icon Ray Bradbury, featuring magazine illustrations, movie stills and posters, comics, letters/scripts, paintings, photos, book illustrations, and jackets from all aspects of Bradbury's illustrious creative life. BRADBURY: AN ILLUSTRATED LIFE is a unique and insightful look behind-the-scenes of Bradbury's career. Few have accomplished what Ray Bradbury has in one lifetime. Although known primarily as an author of essays, poetry, and fiction - he has published hundreds of stories that range from science fiction, fantasy and horror to mystery and detective - he has also made significant contributions to films, television, and the stage (he has won an Emmy and been nominated for the Oscar). He was creative consultant on the U.S. Pavilion at the 1964 New York World's Fair, and in 1982 he created the interior "metaphors" for Space Ship Earth at Disney World's Epcot Centre. More than simply a lavishly illustrated coffee table art book, BRADBURY: AN ILLUSTRATED LIFE will explore the behind-the-scenes material of Ray's work - from childhood inspirations to his early days with the "pulps," to his involvement with EC Comics and on to his books and movie work. The art will be accompanied by insightful commentary by Jerry Weist, who has been a Bradbury pen pal since h was 15 years old, when he wrote Ray a fan letter. Ray Bradbury will provide the introduction.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This coffee table study of the celebrated SF writer focuses on his connections to media-pulps, slicks, radio, theater, film and visual art-and manages to be both gorgeous and highly informative. By Bradbury's own admission, he was influenced by movies from the age of three, and the book traces the shape of this influence through his long career. It also tracks how the visual media have represented Bradbury's work, ranging from the fanzine drawings that appeared before WWII, through the covers of the magazines in which his short stories were published and illustrations for the stories themselves, to the jacket art for nearly 50 years of hardcover and paperback books. Add to that posters and scenes from the many films based on his stories and the diary of making Fahrenheit 451 by director Francois Truffaut-and still there's more. Bradbury, who worked with EC Comics when one of their editors was William Gaines, the future founder of Mad, has had a long association with the stage, and is an above-average artist in his own right, as one short chapter here proves. Weist, a comics expert and artist, has ransacked memories, interviews, correspondences and art collections for the clear text and the well-reproduced artwork in this valuable supplement to other documentation of Bradbury's illustrious career. Color and b&w illustrations throughout.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Jerry Weist is an artist, consultant, and designer, and the author of The Comic Art Price Guide. He lives in Gloucester, Massachusetts.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company; 1st edition (October 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060011823
• ISBN-13: 978-0060011826
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 9.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,057,508 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A breathtaking work and a must-read for all Bradbury fans, October 28, 2002

By 

Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bradbury: An Illustrated Life: A Journey to Far Metaphor (Hardcover)

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

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful Volume, April 15, 2003

By 

repelli "repelli" (Virginia, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bradbury: An Illustrated Life: A Journey to Far Metaphor (Hardcover)

This treat of a book is unique in that it is not merely a collection of illustrations from Bradbury publications over the years, but seeks to document the whole spectrum of "visualizing" the rich prose of Mr. Bradbury, an almost impossible task! This includes films, stage productions, marginal doodles by Bradbury himself, books and films that inspired Bradbury in his early years, and much more - a rewardingly broad approach to crafting the book.
In addition wholeheartedly agreeing with the wonderful points noted by other reviewers, I would like to point out that the book features much rare material by Joseph Mugnaini, the definitive Bradbury artist, in the form of concept sketches for covers, stage backdrops, and some of the original paintings that inspired the Bradbury-Mugnaini partnership in the first place. The contribution of Mugnaini's works to Bradbury's success, as a visual carnival barker beckoning readers into Bradbury's world is tough to underestimate.
The book is beautifully printed, with one absolutely tragic exception - the reproduction of Charles Addams' original illustration for the story "Homecoming" is horrible! It is terribly blurry and there are some kind of liquid stains on the original work, which hung in the Bradbury home for many years. For comparison, look at the (reversed) reproduction used as the dust jacket for Bradbury's recent "From the Dust Returned" novel/collection. Just unfortunate that the one illustration botched - was the lone collaboration between two magnificent twentieth-century masters of the macabre. Still OVERWHELMINGLY worth owning however.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WOW, what a beautiful book, October 6, 2002

By 

Babytoxie (Dallas, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bradbury: An Illustrated Life: A Journey to Far Metaphor (Hardcover)

This harcover book is a great pictorial overview of Ray Bradbury's career - not focusing so much on his life, but more on his life's product. Page after page of photos, with special attention given to his stories, as well as the movies, plays, comics, and other things based on them. It contains an abundance of personal photos, harcover and paperback cover images, movie stills, behind-the-scenes photos, EC comic pages, discussions of the artists most associated with Bradbury's works, and even some rough drafts and alternate versions of book covers. If you collect Bradbury's works, you'll find this an invaluable resource towards recognizing different printings of his books, even foreign editions. ALSO, if you are a fan of the Collectors Press series of hardcovers, (Pulp Culture, Fantasy/Horror/Science Fiction of the 20th Century, and others), you should definitely purchase this! You won't be disappointed!