Author to Return to Library Roots

It was 1926 when Esther Bradbury led 6-year-old Ray into a Waukegan, Ill., library filled with hundreds of children’s books. Over the next two years, the boy would read every volume.

Now the 78-year-old Ray Bradbury wants to make sure other children and adults have the opportunity to put something of value into their heads.

The author of numerous books, including “The Martian Chronicles” and “Fahrenheit 451,” will donate his time as a speaker at the Grant R. Brimhall Library in Thousand Oaks tonight during a library fund-raiser for expanding resources.

“He is a tireless supporter of public libraries everywhere,” said Barbara Wilson, vice president of Friends of the Library. “A woman in Glendale told me that more than 1,000 people came there to hear him speak and he stayed and signed books for hours until the last person got his book signed.”

Although he continues to write, Bradbury finds time to give back to public libraries whenever he is invited.

“Ray Bradbury is a huge supporter for us and other libraries,” said Steve Brogden, deputy library service director. “He is a very eloquent and entertaining speaker.”

Bradbury will not charge a speaking fee, so all entry fees--$15 general and $10 for students and seniors--will be used to purchase more books and materials for the library, Brogden said. Bradbury will speak at 7 p.m. at the main library at 1401 E. Janss Road.

There is no announced topic.

“I never plan what I’m going to say,” Bradbury said. “I get up and explode.”

Those who attend will hear strong opinions from a man whose heart was stolen by the written word when he was a child and who wrote his first book when he was 12.

His family moved to Los Angeles in 1934 and his formal education ended in 1938 when he graduated from Los Angeles High School.

“Education is not found at college,” Bradbury said. “It’s in the library.”

Three times a week for 10 years, Bradbury spent about four hours a day inside the Los Angeles Library. “It is a gigantic library,” he said. “I went into every room and studied.”

When not in the library, he was at his typewriter pounding out science fiction, fantasy, essays, screenplays, movie scripts and poetry.

Because he has enjoyed his life of reading and writing, he wants others to have the same opportunity to learn inside a quiet building full of books.

He is especially excited about children being able to expand their knowledge by decoding the written language. To him, creating young readers is a form of crime prevention.

“Children need to put something into their heads,” Bradbury said. “When they learn to read, they learn to think. If more children learned to think, less of them would grow up to be criminals. The jails are full of nonreaders.”

If children spend more time in libraries, it could not only keep them out of jail but help them overcome the poor education they are getting at schools, he said.

“By the second grade, all children should be able to read,” he said.

And he is not talking about basic books with simple words. Bradbury, who still lives in Los Angeles, says his books are all children’s books that any properly taught 8-year-old should be able to read.

Another advantage of having good libraries where people can spend hours reading good books, Bradbury said, is there would then be less time to watch local TV news. He said TV coverage distorts a viewer’s perspective on life.

“All they show are murder, assaults and rapes,” he said.

But inside books, he said, is something very precious.

“Life is inside books,” Bradbury said. “Our whole civilization is going to go to hell if children are not taught to read. They need to fall in love with reading.”