Legendary author Ray Bradbury shared his passion for writing at East High on Monday night for the final event of One Book One Bakersfield 2005.
Bradbury, author of the reading group’s selection “Fahrenheit 451,” spoke on his life and experience as a short story writer, novelist, poet and playwright, among other things. He relayed the story of his trip to a psychiatrist as a young man.
Bradbury told the psychiatrist, “I want to be the greatest short story writer that ever lived.” To which the psychiatrist replied, “Then you’ve got to wait, don’t you? It’s not going to happen over night. Why don’t you go home and read the Encyclopedia Britannica and read the lives of the great authors and see how long it took them to get established, begin to write and be accepted.”
Bakersfield College student David Daniels, 19, read “Fahrenheit 451” in high school and wanted to meet the author in person.
“He’s packed the entire East High auditorium. He’s an awesome author, he’s a good storyteller,” Daniels said.
Bradbury spoke of his own struggles as a young writer, recounting his meager beginnings with his wife Marguerite McClure.
“We lived in a tiny room and paid $30 a month. We had no telephone. We had no car. But right across the street, there was a gas station (with) a telephone booth. When the telephone rang, I ran over to answer it. The people from MGM and CBS and NBC thought they were calling my home,” he said.
Bradbury explained the initial inspiration behind the short story “The Pedestrian,” which eventually lead to his novel “Fahrenheit 451.”
“I had an experience on Wilshire Boulevard one night. A police car pulled up. The policeman asked ‘What are you doing?’ and I said ‘Putting one foot in front of the other,’ which was the wrong answer,” said Bradbury. The policeman told him to “go home and don’t do it again.” So Bradbury went home and wrote a short story about it.
“About six months later I took my pedestrian out for a walk and he met Clarice McClellan. Nine days later, (it) was finished. That was the first version under the title ‘The Fireman,'” he said.
Kristie Coonz, head of community and support services for Kern County Libraries and co-coordinator of One Book One Bakersfield felt the timing of the book’s selection was perfect.
“I think the public was ready to discuss censorship because of ‘The Bluest Eye’ controversy last year,” Coonz said.
In 2004, East High was at the epicenter of controversy over the school’s reading club selecting Toni Morrison’s novel “The Bluest Eye.”
“Our community voted on which book to read next. It really struck a chord,” said East High library media teacher Dawn Dobie.
Although Bradbury’s appearance at the school was not intentional, “it was a happy accident,” Dobie said.
Ridgeview High School junior Jennifer Weir, 16, was happy with the selection of Bradbury’s work, and found the message to be resonant. “We really need to pay attention to literature or we really will lose ourselves,” she said.