Science fiction writer Ray Bradbury at the sixth annual Duarte Festival
of Authors. Photo courtesy of Friends of Duarte Library. Click
to enlarge.
By Neil Earle
DUARTE, CA. – The First century writer Paul of Tarsus was definitely a man in love with life. In his most famous letter he reported that he was “obligated both to Greek and barbarians, to the wise and the foolish” (Romans 1:14).
As a life-long seeker after wisdom I have no doubt that Paul himself would have enjoyed meeting with science fantasist Ray Bradbury here in Duarte recently. Anyone wandering onto the lovely Westminster Gardens grounds that day last fall could be forgiven for thinking they had strayed upon a pep rally or a motivational seminar.
“See what love does,” stated Ray Bradbury, looking back on his remarkable writing career. “What I’ve done, I’ve done for love. Money comes later.”
Bradbury was a perennial crowd favorite at the sixth annual Duarte Festival of Authors. His love of life and literature easily came through under the big tent and in spite of intermittent rain showers. “All the women in my life have been librarians, booksellers and English teachers and my wife was all three. She came from a well-off family and took a vow of poverty to marry me,” he quipped.
The Bradbury honeymoon amounted to one night in Santa Barbara in 1947. A different world, eh? The young would-be author was having a rough go of it. “My first book got an obituary notice.” But he was in love with the Planet Mars from his early reading as a nine-year-old devouring the writings of Jules Verne and Edgar Rice Burroughs. “A friend named Norman Corwin said come to New York and they’ll know you exist.” That meant a long Greyhound Bus trip to Manhattan in 1950 (“curled into a ball of fungus”), but the young writer had hardly any money in the bank so what else was there?
Once there, talking to Doubleday editors and eking out a stay in the 40th street YMCA, he was convinced by his editor that his Martian short stories could be turned into a novel. After a few nights sitting in his underwear in a muggy Manhattan garret editing, retyping and weaving his episodic extra-planetary tales into a fresh format he was headed back to LA with $700. All out of love, Bradbury says.
Some time later, invited to tea with the famous Aldous Huxley, the British genius told him, “You’re a poet.”
“Really?” Bradbury thought. “All I am was a lover of reading and a library person.”
But the life lesson was obvious: “You become the thing you love with all your heart.” Bradbury’s writing philosophy revolves very much around reading the greats – Herman Melville, Charles Dickens, H.G. Wells. But the essence is doing what you love. “All of my behavior is love,” he re-emphasized. “Jump off the cliff and build your wings on the way down” he told his attentive audience.
As a speaker at the Duarte Festival, Bradbury is almost unsurpassed but this year S.J. Cannell was a worthy follow-up. Cannell is a mega-star in several fields. He has executive-produced some 1500 prime time television shows, from The Rockford Files (1974-1980) to Silk Stalkings. “What a joy to live your dream,” Cannell expostulated. For him it was a dream that led through the discomfort of dyslexia. He was not aware of the problem till he reached 35 when his own daughter was analyzed with the symptoms. This meant that high school and (yes!) college learning was major bluff work. “I was only a C student but I was a pretty good running back so that got me into the University of Oregon,” he remembered.
His one positive nudge toward writing as a career came in high school when he wrote an iambic pentameter poem on Martin Luther King for which he received a B-. When his sister later published it and got an “A,” Cannell realized he was on to something.
“Even though I flunked every qualifying test at U of Oregon my creative writing instructor, Ralph Salisbury, taught me how to write phonetically. He told me, ‘You have a gift from God. Don’t stop being a writer.’”
This is why it is so important to not let dyslexic students give up on themselves, Cannell exhorts with evangelistic passion. Out of high school he wrote every night for five hours and Saturday and Sunday on half days. After six years he turned in his first TV script with the usual long wait to see an executive. When he did it was to meet the “You’ll never make it” reaction. Inspired by Salisbury, Cannel got himself an agent, a Hedda Hopper type, he says, who called everyone “dearie” and got in to see talent scouts on the strength of her great home-made cookies.
Finally came the big break. One year, the season finale of Adam-12 (1968-1975) was not yet written and the studio was desperate. Cannell took the assignment immediately and started Thursday to prepare for a Monday delivery. “I always over-prepared, that’s one thing my dyslexia taught me,” he says, “and a typist really helps.”
It worked. The studio liked it. Two days later he was hired as head writer. For the next eight years he worked at Universal to growing acclaim, writing eight episodes of such hits as Beretta. In 1981 this led him to develop his own company, Cannell Studio, which eventually hired 2100 employees – the third largest in Hollywood. His father sat on his Board of Directors helping supervise $100 million worth of TV stations.
This worked well for him until 1995 and the inevitable changes in the industry made him restless for more creative pastures. Writing again came to his rescue – his first love. The Plan, his initial novel, worked well and he soon mastered the detective story format. Once again, time to move on. A later novel, At First Sight, he likes because it addresses what Cannell calls “the hollowing out of the American value system.” He worries about a world where we go from Dr. Christian Barnard on the cover of Time magazine to the unfortunate Anna Nicole Smith. He himself exemplifies strong family values. The darkest day in his life, he admits, was when his 15˝ year old son died.
Cannell is openly evangelistic about a person making it in spite of the obstacles. His love for his craft and the opportunities life has thrown his way makes him a captivating speaker. “Treat “C’ students well,” he advises teachers, “because they’ll come back later and endow a library.”
Cannell also shared the day with the Sanchez sisters, Loretta and Linda, the first pair of sisters to serve in the United States Congress. Both from Southern California, they rounded out the “you can do it” theme that permeated the tent that day at Westminster Gardens. Even though the politics of the financial bailout in Washington dominated the discussion, they were both appreciated for keeping their commitment a day after flying in from Washington and on the heels of a recent family tragedy. Variety was the order of the day, represented by authors on such subjects as Autism, self-help, women’s issues and education.
Professor Dale Salwak, an English professor from Citrus College, displayed his thoughtful and helpful, Teaching Life: Lessons from a Life in Literature. Salwak developed the idea when a young girl student supposed to visit him in his office was killed in a car crash on the way to the meeting. This became the frame for Salwak’s eloquent attempt to distill thirty five years of college teaching in 188 pages. One of his insights serves as a good conclusion to this article as well as a “Thank you” to the Duarte Library Board for organizing such a successful event:
“We are what we read. If we want to know the truth of other people, then read what they have read…Read for information, read for stimulation, read for fun…To keep growing we must also keep reading.” All our speakers that memorable afternoon would endorse that sentiment.
They all love what they do and they are not afraid to show they care about people and about life. Paul, who coined the phrase, “all things to all men” would have enjoyed it immensely.
Neil Earle is a pastor, freelance journalist and community volunteer who hosts Duarte, CA’s popular DCTV show “A Second Look.” He can be reached at neil.earle@gci.org.