James graham ballard (b. 1930)

J.G. Ballard is a Britishwriter. He was a prominent member of theNew Waveinscience fiction. His best known books are the controversial Crash, and the autobiographical novelEmpire of the Sun, both of which have been adapted to film.

J.G. Ballard used his own childhood in a Japanese prison camp as the basis for his 1984 novel Empire of the Sun. As a young man he settled in Shepperton, England and, after studying medicine, began a career as a writer. Though Empire of the Sun is a fairly mainstream story, Ballard's other books are not easily classified; some call them science fiction, others simply creepy or disturbing. They generally combine sex, surgery and technology as part of a psychoanalytical depiction of the modern human condition. Ballard is also the author of Crash (1973), which was made into a 1996 movie starring Holly HunterandJames Spader. (Empire of the Sun had already been made into a movie in 1987, directed by Steven Spielbergand starring a youngChristian Baleas the Ballard-like boy, Jim.) Ballard's other books includeThe Crystal World (1966), High-rise (1975), The Day of Creation (1987) and Cocaine Nights (1996).

The adjective "Ballardian", defined as "resembling or suggestive of the conditions described in JG Ballard's novels and stories, especially dystopian modernity, bleak man-made landscapes and the psycho­logical effects of technological, social or environmental develop­ments", has been included in the Collins English Dictionary.

Ballard's fiction is sophisticated, often bizarre, and a constant challenge to the cognitive and aesthetic preconceptions of his readers. As Martin Amis has written: "Ballard is quite unlike anyone else; indeed, he seems to address a different – a disused – part of the reader's brain." Because of this tendency to upset readers in order to enlighten them, Ballard does not enjoy a mass-market following, but he is recognized by critics as one of the UK's most prominent writers.

Ray douglas bradbury (b. 1920)

American author of science-fiction short stories and novels, nostalgic tales, poetry, radio drama, and television and motion-picture scre­enplays. His highly imaginative science-fiction stories blended social criticism with an awareness of the hazards of runaway technology.

Bradbury published his first story in 1940 and was soon contributing widely to magazines; his stories have been published in more than 700 anthologies. His first book of short stories, Dark Carnival (1947), was followed by The Martian Chronicles (1950; motion picture 1966; television miniseries 1980), generally accounted a science-fiction classic in its depiction of materialistic Earthmen exploiting and corrupting an idyllic Martian civilization. Bradbury's other important short-story collections include The Illustrated Man (1951), The Golden Apples of the Sun (1953), Fahrenheit 451 (1953), The October Country (1955), A Medicine for Melancholy (1959), The Machineries of Joy (1964), and I Sing the Body Electric! (1969). His novels include Dandelion Wine (1957) and Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962). He wrote stage plays and several screenplays, including Moby Dick (1956; in collaboration with John Huston). In the 1970s Bradbury wrote several volumes of poetry, and in the 1970s and 80s he concentrated on writing children's stories and crime fiction.