The Center for Ray Bradbury Studies curates one of the larger single-author collections in the United States. The papers and books gifted in 2013 include more than 100,000 pages of published and unpublished literary works stored in thirty-one of the author’s filing cabinets; forty years of his personal and professional correspondence (an additional 10,000 pages); author’s copies of his books, including extensive foreign language editions, and his working library (a combined 4000 volumes). The broader collection of papers includes manuscripts, typescripts, screenplay and teleplay drafts, story concepts, photographs, correspondence, scrapbooks with original drawings and printed comic strips from his youth, and ephemera he collected documenting his travels. Yet another 10,000 pages of papers and writings that never made it into his filing cabinets have also now been sorted into rough categories in preparation for preservation and accessioning efforts. Below is an outline of those holdings that make up the Center’s “Ray Bradbury Archive.”
The Center is home to research copies of Bradbury’s published works, including successive editions and the various reprintings and issues within each edition. This extensive holding also includes many foreign editions of Bradbury’s works, representing over twenty international languages. The Center updates its holdings as new editions are released.
Highlights:
Including manuscripts, typescripts, teleplays, screenplays, and correspondence, the archive of Bradbury’s papers (approximately 110,000 pages) makes up the bulk of the Center’s archival collections.
Highlights:
The Center’s copies of Bradbury’s audiovisual interviews and public appearances offer valuable insights into the author’s personal and creative life. Many of these analog audio and video artifacts have been digitized. The Center maintains the capability to view and listen to both the analog and digital versions on site.
Highlights:
The films, television shows, and stage plays adapted by Bradbury and other writers from Bradbury works. Many formats are represented, including film production reels, Betamax, VHS, DVD, and BlueRay. The film and analog original recordings are in the process of being digitized through an Indiana University initiative. Playback equipment available.
Highlights: