Q 01/05

In which Illinois town was Ray Bradbury born in 1920?

A) Peoria

B) Waukegan

C) Springfield

D) Galesburg

Answer · why

B) Waukegan

The lakeside town north of Chicago became 'Green Town, Illinois' in his fiction, the setting of Dandelion Wine and Something Wicked This Way Comes.

Q 02/05

Bradbury's parents gave him his middle name in honour of which swashbuckling silent-film star?

A) Rudolph Valentino

B) Douglas Fairbanks

C) John Barrymore

D) Ramon Novarro

Answer · why

B) Douglas Fairbanks

He later gave the name to Douglas Spaulding, the 12-year-old hero of Dandelion Wine who is loosely modelled on the author himself.

Q 03/05

Which carnival performer touched 12-year-old Bradbury with an electrified sword and shouted 'Live, forever!'?

A) Mr. Dark

B) Mr. Electrico

C) The Illustrated Man

D) Doctor Lao

Answer · why

B) Mr. Electrico

Bradbury said he went home from that Labor Day 1932 show, started writing within days and never stopped.

Q 04/05

Bradbury's first pay as a writer, at age 14, came from selling a joke to which radio comedian?

A) Eddie Cantor

B) George Burns

C) Fred Allen

D) Bob Hope

Answer · why

B) George Burns

He used to roller-skate around Hollywood hoping to meet celebrities, and the gag was used on the Burns and Allen radio show.

Q 05/05

Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451 on rented typewriters in the basement of which university library?

A) USC

B) UCLA

C) Stanford

D) Berkeley

Answer · why

B) UCLA

The machines cost ten cents per half-hour, and the manuscript ran to about 50,000 words.