Ray Bradbury (1920) It was on this date, August 22, 1920, that prolific science fiction author Ray Douglas Bradbury was born in Waukegan, Illinois. His formal education ended when he graduated from a Los Angeles high school in 1938. He became a full-time writer in 1943. Bradbury has published more than thirty books, including about […]

Herman Melville (1819) It was on this date, August 1, 1819, that the American novelist Herman Melville was born in New York, into a family of the Dutch Reformed church, the third of eight children. At age 7, scarlet fever left Melville somewhat visually impaired, and although his father died when he was 12, he […]