Know Your Author

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The Hindu (SE) ND Page No. 05 Dated 29th July 2021

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Libraries were his teachersDid you know Author Ray Bradbury never attended college? Or that he preferred spending time in public libraries and nurtured a love for magic?

Growing up, Ray Bradbury loved magic so much that he often said if he hadn’t discovered his love for writing, he would have become a magician. In fact, magic helped him find his calling as a writer.

Meeting Mr. Electrico

Bradbury loved performing magic tricks as a child. When he was 12, he convinced his mother to take him to a travelling carnival that was visiting his hometown of Illinois, United States. Mid-way through a magic show, the magician, Mr. Electrico, walked up to Bradbury and tapped both his shoulders and his nose with an electrified sword. The static electricity made the hair on his arms stand. “Live forever,” the magician shouted, sending shivers down his spine. Mr. Electrico’s sword sparked young Bradbury’s imagination, spurring him to express his love of magic on paper. And the habit of writing continued throughout his life. “I felt that something strange and wonderful had happened to me because of my encounter with Mr. Electrico...he gave me a future...I began to write, full-time. I have written every single day of my life since that day 69 years ago,” Bradbury said in his autobiography.

Feeding his imagination

As a child, Bradbury spent a lot of time at his grandfather’s boarding house where he loved reading sci-fi magazines brought by guests. Wild tales from Jules Verne and H.G. Wells captivated him. Hooked on the Buck Rogers series published in “Amazing Stories”, a pulp-fiction magazine, he spent his childhood days in a reading frenzy, devouring the books as soon as they were released.

Soon, he began churning out his own short stories, one every week. Often he did not even have paper to write on because the entire country was gripped by the Great Depression, the worst economic downturn in history. Workers were getting laid off and those who were lucky enough to still hold onto their jobs were not paid salaries for months. So families were operating on tight budgets and even paper had become a luxury. But undeterred, Bradbury poured out his imagination on scraps of paper the butcher had used to wrap meat.

‘Graduating from libraries’

Owing to the Depression, Bradbury could not afford to go to college, but he would regularly visit public libraries.

In many interviews, he has attributed his success as a writer “to not having gone to college and instead graduating from libraries”. A strong supporter of the public library system, he helped raise funds to prevent many of the libraries in California from shutting down. “Libraries raised me...I don't believe in colleges and universities. I believe in libraries because most students don't have any money. When I graduated from high school, it was during the Depression and we had no money. I couldn't go to college, so I went to the library three days a week for 10 years,” he said.

When his family moved to California, he would escape into the basement of the University of California Los Angeles library to focus on his craft.

“For 10 cents a half-hour, you could rent a typewriter. And I thought, my gosh, this is terrific. I can be here for a couple hours a day. It'll cost me 30, 40 cents, and get my work done,” said Bradbury.

On a roll

Living close to Hollywood, Bradbury turned into a movie buff, sneaking into theatres as often as nine times a week. He even started roller-skating through Hollywood in the hope of meeting celebrities. On one of his excursions, he met George Burns, a radio star, who was so impressed by Bradbury’s stories, that he hired him to write for his show. This is how he got his first job as a writer at the age of 14, and it was just the beginning.

His writing career stretched across 70 years. More than eight million copies of his books have been sold in 36 languages. They include the short-story collections “The Martian Chronicles”, “The Illustrated Man” and “The Golden Apples of the Sun”, and the novels “Fahrenheit 451” and “Something Wicked This Way Comes”.

Though none of his works won a Pulitzer Prize, Bradbury received a Pulitzer citation in 2007.

The Hindu (SE) ND Page No. 05 Dated 28th July 2021********************Finding the ‘write’ noteDid you know bestselling thriller author Dan Brown began his career as a musician? Or that last year he ventured into writing for children?

Author Dan Brown. PHOTO: The New York Times

DID YOU KNOW?

** Dan Brown used the pseudonym Danielle Brown to co-author the book “187 Men to Avoid: A Survival Guide for the Romantically Frustrated Woman”with his wife Blythe.

** Brown is known for hiding easter eggs inside his books. For instance, he hid puzzles in the book cover of “The Da Vinci Code”, which gave hints about its sequel.

It’s not every day that you hear of an author of adrenaline-fuelled conspiracy novels turning to children’s writing and music. But then Dan Brown always does things differently.

Growing up, he lived on the campus of his school, Phillips Exeter Academy, New Hampshire, the U.S. where his father Richard taught Mathematics. His parents’ decision to not keep a television set in the house forced Brown and his siblings to turn to puzzles and crosswords for entertainment.

Love for riddles

On birthdays and Christmases, the entire family took part in treasure hunts designed by their father. They eagerly pored over riddles and maps to find clues carefully hidden around the house. Racing from one clue to the next, the joy of finally locating their gifts – a shiny new bicycle, a favourite book, or a cherished toy – would elicit shrieks of delight.

Besides solving puzzles, Brown enjoyed playing the piano. He was part of the Amherst College Glee Club, which was a singing group. His mother Constance too was a trained church organist. After graduation, Brown decided to become a musician. He produced songs for children – some of them such as “Suzuki Elephants” and “Happy Frog” became popular – and later went on to launch his own record company. He even moved to Hollywood to pursue a career as a singer-songwriter and pianist, but did not meet with much success.

A thrilling start

Brown took up a job as an English teacher at his alma mater Phillips Exeter Academy. Reading Sidney Sheldon’s “The Doomsday Conspiracy” on a lazy vacation inspired him to try his hand at writing a thriller. Tapping into his passion for cryptography and riddles, Brown penned “Digital Fortress”, a techno-thriller that explores the theme of government surveillance of electronically stored information on the private lives of citizens. Its success led him to quit his job as a teacher and focus on writing full-time. His knowledge of art history and religion helped him come up with “ The Da Vinci Code”, the second book to feature the character of Robert Langdon, a symbology expert. The book became an instant success, and is credited with renewing interest in Da Vinci’s work and secret societies, as well as spiking tourism to Paris and Rome. It was adapted into a film in 2006, starring the inimitable Tom Hanks as Langdon.

Changing tack

Brown’s books usually explore the intriguing world of secret societies, saints, deities, poets, architects, code-breakers, and symbologists. With a desire to share his love for music and mysteries with kids, he forayed into children’s literature. His picture book is “Wild Symphony”, released in September last year. The book is about a mouse who is a musical conductor. Staying true to Brown’s love for codes, the book includes different types of clues and puzzles. Readers can find anagrams that spell a musical instrument when placed in the right order. The book also promises a unique reading experience as it combines reading with music. Using an app on your phone, you will be able to play the right song for every animal.

The Hindu (SE) ND Page No. 05 Dated 27th July 2021

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Times of India (SE) ND Page No 03 Dated 24th July 2021
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The tale of Beatrix PotterDid you know children’s author Beatrix Potter was an avid nature lover? Or that she loved to study fungi and rear sheep?

Beatrix Potter loved spending her holidays in the English countryside. She did not have many playmates as a child, but she kept all kinds of pets – rabbits, mice, frogs, hedgehogs, and even lizards in the family farm – to overcome loneliness.

When she was six, her father Rupert, who was also fond of sketching, gifted her a sheet of his own drawings. It contained funny sketches of swans, ducks, and pelicans wearing hats. One of them was a duck wearing a poke bonnet fastened with a ribbon under the chin, which later became Jemima Puddle-duck. She preserved the sheet throughout her life.

The Tale of Peter Rabbit

Once on a summer holiday, she sent letters with sketches to her friends. In one of the letters to her friend’s younger son, she narrated the story of four bunnies: Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, and Peter. It became the basis of her career – and a popular children’s series.

Although it was her childhood dream to become a children’s author, she wrote “The Tale of Peter Rabbit”only in her mid-30s. Many publishers rejected her work. However not one to get disheartened, Potter decided to publish a small number of copies for friends and family. It became a hit, and Frederick Warne & Co, which had initially turned down the book, offered to publish it on the condition that she coloured the illustrations.

Despite the late start to her career, she came up with more than 20 children’s books, including “ The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin”, “The Tale of Mrs Tiggy Winkle”, “The Tale of Mr Jeremy Fisher.” The money she earned from her books helped her buy a small farm in the Lake District in the English countryside in 1905.

Conserving nature

Potter moved away from the bustling London to the farm where she felt at peace and free to observe nature. She mastered Mycology, the study of fungi, and became a naturalist, at a time when women naturalists were rare. In fact, when she came up with a theory on how fungi spores reproduced, the paper had to be presented by her male friend, the assistant director of Kew Gardens, as women were not taken seriously in the field. She bred Herdwick sheep, a native threatened species. And often, she stood up against builders threatening to take over the green pastures.

Creative control

Potter cherished her creations and did not trust anyone else with them. So when Walt Disney decided to adapt “The Tale of Peter Rabbit” to screen in 1936, she turned him down.

You can visit her house

When Potter died in 1943 at the age of 77, she left 14 farms and 4,000 acres of land in the Lake District to Britain’s National Trust, ensuring the beautiful landscape that inspired her work would be preserved.

The Trust opened her house to the public in 1946. Even today, children are greeted at the door with a bookmarked copy of “The Tale of Samuel Whiskers” and encouraged to spot the things in its illustrations: grandfather clock, Welsh dresser, and Oriental rug. The whole village has been decorated on the themes from her work such as the dolls’ house in “The Tale of Two Bad Mice” to the rhubarb patch where Jemima Puddle-Duck hid her eggs.

Her illustrations and stories have helped preserve her memory, even 78 years after her demise.

The Hindu (SE) ND Page No. 05 Dated 21st July 2021

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Roald Dahl is well-known for his books “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, “Matilda”, and “The BFG”. He started his writing career with a short story for “The Saturday Evening Post.” Dahl's stories are known for their unexpected endings, and often dark comedy. However, some of his work has been criticised for carrying anti-Semitic, racist and misogynistic sentiments. Before he turned to writing, Dahl worked with the Royal Air Force in 1939, fulfilling his lifelong dream of flying. After he was severely injured in a plane crash in 1940, he turned to writing for children.

The Hindu (SE) ND Page No. 05 Dated 15th July 2021

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