Now, a Literary Moment...

If a cluttered desk is a sign of genius, Fahrenheit 451 author Ray Bradbury is an even better writer than people know. Biographer Sam Weller spent some time in Bradbury's study.

Sam Weller: I like to call it his laboratory of his imagination. I mean his basement office is just a wreck of ideas, toy rocket ships, rubber Godzillas, symbols that he would look at, metaphors he would tell you that ignite his imagination?he could look at them. Symbols from his past, nostalgic remnants. His father's hat, his old Stetson hat, hangs above his desk. Masks he'd collected in Mexico while on a trip there in the 1940s, gifts he'd received from fans. Every letter he's ever been sent from fans are kept down there and you can go through. And I found a letter I wrote to him as a child down there in a book.

Narrator: Sam Weller, biographer of Ray Bradbury.

This Literary Moment was created by The National Endowment for the Arts.