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August 22: Happy Birthday, Ray Bradbury

Today's birthday commemoration goes out to the renowned author Ray Bradbury. About sixty years before the "Green" movement, meant to stave off the destruction of the natural Earth, Bradbury set his stories in Green Town, an analogy for his hometown of Waukegan, Illinois. Green Town was green and inviting and nurturing, yet also the setting for fantastic events like an uncle growing wings and carnivals bringing characters with supernatural powers. 

It's no surprise that Bradbury's weird tales in the science fiction genre were adapted for radio, by programs such as Dimension X, X Minus One and Suspense. But did you know that at the tender age of fourteen, the future author of Fahrenheit 451 got his first paying gig as a writer for the Burns and Allen Show? That's right, loyal listeners.

Bradbury did something very unique and quirky in his literary career. Feeling the world needed a journal devoted just to his works, he published Futuria Fantasia, with almost all the work being written by him. He used pseudonyms to hide this, though. This was in 1938, when he was a whipper-snapper just graduating high school. We salute you, Ray Bradbury!

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