When famed author and Waukegan native Ray Bradbury was 12, he was upset by the death of an uncle. He ran from his home on St. James Street to the shores of Lake Michigan, where he found a carnival, according to the narrator of an animated story about his younger days.
Entering a carnival tent, the narrator said he encountered Mr. Electro, who “touched him with a flaming sword and cried, ‘Live forever.’” Bradbury returned to the carnival the next day to learn how he could live forever. He shared ideas from his imagination with carnival hands.
As Bradbury shared his ideas, the narrator said he had an epiphany.
“No one can live forever, but an author’s stories can,” the narrator said. “He has gone to a carnival as a child, but he has emerged as Ray Bradbury, author. Ray begins to write, first on a toy typewriter, and later on one he uses in the final decades of his career.”
The animated story of Bradbury’s childhood is now told continually as part of an enhanced exhibit which opened Friday at the Waukegan History Museum at the Carnegie in what was once the children’s reading room of the Waukegan Public Library where the author read when young.
From the time the Waukegan Park District purchased the long-shuttered Carnegie library from the city of Waukegan six years ago to restore it as a museum, Ty Rohrer, the manager of cultural arts for the Park District, said a goal was to make the one-time reading room a tribute to Bradbury.
When the museum opened in May of last year, restored to how it looked more than a century ago, the former children’s reading room had Bradbury’s personal book collection in glass cases prominently displayed. He willed his personal collection to the library.
When the interactive animated exhibit on Bradbury’s life opened Friday, there was a lot more: the typewriter he used, the original manuscript from his novel “Dandelion Wine,” a key to the city he once received, and other personal artifacts.
Lori Nerheim, the president of the historical society, said the library was where Bradbury discovered “the magic of books.” He developed a love for Waukegan, which he never lost long after his family moved to California.
“‘I was born in Waukegan in 1920 and had my second birth at the Carnegie Library in Waukegan,’” Nerheim said, quoting Bradbury. “‘I came full bloom there, and when I was 12, after reading most of the books in that fantastic library, I became Ray Bradbury.’”
Karen Carlson, a historical society board member and an author herself, said the exhibit is “so inspiring.” She wants to see the schoolchildren of Waukegan exposed to it. She intends to show it to others herself.
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“I’m going to bring my grandchildren,” Carlson said. “My grandson is 12 and loves reading. I want him to see this and start writing. He reads a book a day.”
Though Waukegan Mayor Sam Cunningham said Bradbury’s books were not required reading when he was a student at Waukegan High School, teachers assigned Bradbury’s works as part of classroom work.
“English teachers had us read Ray Bradbury’s books,” Cunningham said. “We learned how a kid from Waukegan was inspired to enjoy reading. That’s what I remember about Ray Bradbury when I was growing up.”
Chandra Sefton said that during the effort to prevent the Carnegie Library building from being demolished, she worked with a group that was ultimately successful. No one knew where Bradbury lived. She wrote him a letter.
“Ray Bradbury wrote back and said he lived on South St. James Street,” Sefton said. “The video is inspiring. Everyone should see it.”
Inspiration was the goal of animator Warren Rudd. He began working on the project late last year. The more he learned about Bradbury’s life and work, the more impressed he became with the author’s efforts.
“I tried to step inside his imagination,” Rudd said. “I was drawn into how he imagined going to Mars and works like ‘Fahrenheit 451’ and how he imagined all that.”