William F. Nolan Collection on Ray Bradbury

Collection

Identifier: MS-0231

Staff Only

Collection Overview

Abstract

The William F. Nolan Collection on Ray Bradbury consists of photocopied manuscripts, fanzines, correspondence, and other materials from Ray Bradbury’s career; the materials range in date from 1937-1981.

Dates

Creation: 1937-1981, undated

Extent

16.9 Cubic Feet (11 processed archives boxes; 28 unprocessed archives boxes)

Creator

Bradbury, Ray, 1920-2012 (Person)

Scope and Contents

As Bradbury’s friend and earliest bibliographer, William F. Nolan compiled an impressive collection of manuscripts, printed works, promotional items, speech transcripts, art works, and interviews. In addition to the impressive array of rare manuscripts, Nolan preserved a series of correspondence written to him by Bradbury from 1950 to 1980. These letters show the evolution of their friendship and provide insight into Bradbury’s process and work during the most prolific part of his career. The core of this collection is the large number of literary manuscripts of Bradbury’s works. This includes an original typed manuscript of Bradbury’s most popular novel, Fahrenheit 451; it also includes over 120 other manuscripts for short stories, scripts, screenplays and poems, often in multiple drafts. Many include holograph corrections and notes by Bradbury. Most of the included manuscripts are photocopies made of originals that were in Bradbury’s personal collection, or the collections of other friends of Bradbury. In many cases, the manuscript photocopies are the only publicly available copies of these drafts.

Researchers will find many unique items in the collection including adaptations of Ray Bradbury’s work by himself and others. This includes a copy of the comic book Weird Science #18, which reproduces Bradbury’s “Mars is Heaven” story from The Martian Chronicles. The comic book is signed by Bradbury, artist Wally Wood, writer Al Feldstein, and editor Bill Gaines. The collection also includes a copy of Bradbury’s script for John Huston’s 1956 film Moby Dick, the first of the many scripts Bradbury wrote for both stage and screen. Also included is a copy of The Dogs That Eat Sweet Grass, which was transcribed from a series of interviews Bradbury gave at UCLA. As part of his original register for the collection, William F. Nolan wrote notes describing each item in the collection. Copies of the notes are included in the folder for the corresponding item in the collection. The notes, which vary in detail from minimal to extensive, add context and sometimes speak to the provenance of the items in the collection. This collection includes several boxes of unprocessed materials, including photographs, copies of Bradbury's printed output in novels, compilations, and periodicals, as well as Nolan's research for his bibliographic writings on Bradbury.

Researchers interested in the science fiction genre and the many facets of Ray Bradbury’s life will find this collection invaluable.

Biographical / Historical

Ray Douglas Bradbury was born in 1920 in Waukegan, Illinois and moved with his family to Los Angeles, California in 1934. He graduated high school in Los Angeles in 1938 and spent several subsequent years selling newspapers by day and typing on a library typewriter at night. In 1938, his first short story, "Hollerbochen's Dilemma," was printed in Imagination. He first sold a story, "Pendulum," in 1941 to Super Science Stories. He became a full-time writer in 1943, writing prolifically for pulp magazines and contributing to story compilations. Bradbury’s first major literary success occurred in 1950 with the publication of his collection, The Martian Chronicles; the collection includes stories that have been adapted into many media. His most well-known work was Fahrenheit 451, published in 1953. The book was adapted into a film by Francois Truffaut in 1966 and has seen numerous other adaptations.

Bradbury’s interests were larger than writing fiction. He became a screenwriter in 1956, adapting Herman Melville’s Moby Dick with John Huston. This was the first of many times Bradbury wrote for the big and little screen as well as the stage. He wrote episodes for The Twilight Zone, adapted The Martian Chronicles as a TV mini-series, and wrote many of the episodes of his own tv show, Ray Bradbury Theatre. He won an Emmy award for his teleplay adaptation of The Halloween Tree. In his later years, he worked closely with the Disney company on the Epcot and EuroDisney parks, and often spoke and wrote on behalf of NASA.

Ray Bradbury died on June 5, 2012. He was married to his wife Maggie from 1947 until her death in 2003 and was the father of four daughters.

Conditions Governing Access

No known access restrictions.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright and other restrictions may apply to the materials in this collection. Researchers using this collection assume full responsibility for conforming to the laws of libel, privacy, and copyright, and are responsible for securing permissions necessary for publication or reproduction.

Any quotation, reproduction, or reuse of any published or unpublished materials found in this collection requires the permission of the estate of Ray Bradbury.

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Immediate Source of Acquisition

This collection was transferred from William F. Nolan to the Center for Archival Collections, Bowling Green State University in 1981. The collection was transferred to the Ray and Pat Browne Library for Popular Culture Studies in 2018.

Processing Information

The original finding aid was compiled by Nancy Steen, Rare Books Librarian in April 1986; it was then adapted for online use by Lee N. McLaird, Curator of Rare Books. updated in March 1991, and again in August 2009 by Patricia Falk. The finding aid was updated by Steve Ammidown, Manuscripts and Outreach Archivist, in September 2018. It was revised and input into ArchivesSpace by Tyne Lowe, Manuscripts Archivist, in September 2023.

Other Finding Aids

An even more extensive collection of Bradbury’s manuscripts and work can be found at the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IU-PUI), Indianapolis, Indiana.