The works of Ray Bradbury have been read and revered for more than half a century. The winner of countless awards and accolades, including a Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation, he has left a deeper, more enduring imprint on our times than most writers of his or any generation. The source of "The Martian Chronicles," father of "The Illustrated Man," and master brewer of "Dandelion Wine," Bradbury has penned stories, novels, stage plays, and screenplays that have long demonstrated the limitlessness of the human imagination and pure power of the word.

"Bradbury: An Illustrated Life" features magazine illustrations, movie stills and posters, comic book art, letters, scripts, book jackets, and paintings -- all expertly selected and insightfully explained -- that trace an incomparable artist's journey through the twentieth century and into the twenty-first. Here also are rare and illuminating gems from some of his renowned compatriots and collaborators, including excerpts from the journal of legendary director Fran ois Truffaut, written during the making of the motion picture version of Bradbury's