Ray Bradbury Museum a hidden gem at IU Indianapolis

INDIANAPOLIS (MIRROR INDY) — In late August, Frank Palumbo drove from upstate New York to IU Indianapolis to read letters, look at paintings and enjoy the little pieces of history that belonged to a man he considered a good friend.

Cavanaugh Hall is home to the Ray Bradbury Center Museum, one of the largest single-author archives in the country dedicated to the writer of books such as “Fahrenheit 451” and “The Martian Chronicles.” Bradbury was from Illinois and lived in Los Angeles, but his life’s work wound up in Indianapolis due to his connections with Hoosiers.

But, despite its importance to literary scholars and fans of Bradbury’s work, the museum remains a hidden gem. Fans will have the chance to take a closer look when the center hosts the weekslong Festival 451indy beginning Sept. 13 at venues across the city.

To Palumbo, a retired English teacher who lives in Canton, New York, the museum is a link to the man himself. Palumbo encouraged his students at Gouverneur Central High School in New York to write to Bradbury in 1996, and the legendary author wrote back and sent drawings, posters and letters and even called them by telephone. That kicked off a relationship between Palumbo and Bradbury that lasted until the author died in 2012.

“Mr. Bradbury was always in my studies for my nine through 12 classes throughout the year in one way or another, and the students loved it,” said Palumbo, 71. “We’d take pictures of the students in front of a bulletin board that they had made with ‘Fahrenheit 451.’ He always wrote back to us, and it was just a real gift, that’s for sure.”

Palumbo, who is in town more often now because his son got a job in Indianapolis, believes people can learn a lot about Bradbury at the museum.

“You get to see things here, like posters on the wall and books displayed here and share in the imagination that people from all over the world appreciate,” he said.

In addition to novels, the author wrote many short stories and movie and TV scripts that were often set in the Midwest and based on genres that include science fiction, horror, mystery and fantasy.

Bradbury’s works, for instance, inspired author Stephen King, who called Bradbury his “creative father;” director Steven Spielberg, who called him his science fiction “muse;” and even NASA, which credited him as being one of the strongest voices for traveling to Mars.

The museum contains hundreds of thousands of pages of Bradbury’s published and unpublished works, more than 40 years worth of personal letters, his complete office — including the two desks where he wrote his most famous works — and memorabilia from movies and TV shows he wrote or helped write.

Bradbury’s work had a Midwestern twang

Bradbury was born in Waukegan, Illinois, in 1920, but his family later moved west to Arizona and California in search of work during the Great Depression. Because money was tight, Bradbury never went to college and most of his education came from books.

“He read voraciously, and he always said he graduated from the public library at age 27,” said Assistant Professor Jason Aukerman, director of the Ray Bradbury Center Museum.

Palumbo remembers the first time he read Bradbury’s works. He was a 10th grader in upstate New York doing hard time in study hall — no books, no other way to pass the time. He was sent to the school’s library to get a book to, presumably, make both his and his study hall teacher’s life easier.

He dawdled a little bit on the way, he admits, but he eventually reached the library. There, he spun around a circular book display full of paperbacks that usually creaked and wobbled.

“What stopped in front of me was ‘The Golden Apples of the Sun’ with the illustration of a dinosaur and the planet in the background,” Palumbo remembered. “The illustration itself amazed me, so I signed it out and started reading it. I was hooked.”

Although Bradubury’s imagination took him to Mars and beyond, his heart remained in the Midwest until his death. His works, like that of fellow Midwesterner Kurt Vonnegut — who had a deep appreciation of his native Indianapolis — have helped people feel what it means to live and grow up here. And the Vonnegut Museum and Library, of course, also is in Indianapolis.

One of Bradbury’s books, “Dandelion Wine,” helped students in Japan learn about life in the Midwest. A Japanese high school teacher assigned the book to his students to read the novel about the simple joys of growing up in small town America and had them write to Bradbury. The Bradbury Museum has letters and art from the students.

Japanese student Mie Horiuchi’s report on “Dandelion Wine” sent to Ray Bradbury, seen here Aug. 28, 2024, is now displayed at IU Indianapolis’ Ray Bradbury Center Museum. (Photo by Enrique Saenz/Mirror Indy)

“I could not move in amazement. A big wave came over me,” wrote one student named Mie Horiuchi. “‘Dandelion Wine’ let me know how interesting a life is.”

Palumbo said that Bradbury’s works were about humanity, no matter where in the universe his characters were.

“I think he addressed such a wide spectrum of topics, from small town people in a little town called Green Town, Illinois, to the ‘Martian Chronicles’ in space,” he said. “All of them with their family and with their friends, while learning things about fear, about love, about adventures, about ambition.”

Bradbury’s legacy

Bradbury was born in the Midwest, but he wasn’t from Indiana. He lived in Los Angeles. He’s a world-famous author, but he didn’t go to college. So how did the collection make its way to a university in Indiana?

When Bradbury died in 2012, he left many of his books, manuscripts and materials to Donn Albright, an instructor at the Pratt Institute in New York who was born in Muncie. Albright passed on that collection to IU Indianapolis Professor Jonathan Eller, one of the nation’s premier Bradbury biographers who helped establish the Bradbury Center and served as its first director.

The museum contains many of the curios he collected over the years —– an early draft script of ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ he at one point was in line to write, a sketch of the character Mister Miracle sketched by comics legend Jack Kirby on the back of a 1973 San Diego Comic-Con flyer, props from Disney movies and Alfred Hitchcock shows he wrote or helped write, signed photos by Hollywood legends such as Jean Harlow.

“He held on to everything, and it’s great for us to have that legacy of, OK, we have somebody that’s a famous author that actually has a history that we can share with the world,” said volunteer educator and tour guide Max Goller. “But how many people save that much, not a lot.”

How to schedule a tour, attend Festival 451Indy

The Ray Bradbury Museum is located in Room 121 inside Cavanaugh Hall at IU Indianapolis, 425 University Blvd., by appointment only. For more information, head to the center’s website. To schedule a tour, email bradbury@iu.edu.

The Ray Bradbury Center also will host the annual literary festival, Festival 451indy, at various locations throughout September and October. For more information, head to the festival website.

To subscribe to the center’s monthly newsletter, The Bradbury Beat, head to the newsletter site.

Mirror Indy reporter Enrique Saenz covers west Indianapolis. Contact him at 317-983-4203 or enrique.saenz@mirrorindy.org. Follow him on X @heyEnriqueSaenz.