A few days ago I was in a used bookstore and I saw a very old hardcover called "They All Saw It". It's a childrens book, published in 1944, and it's by Margaret Wise Brown, with photographs by Ylla (whose real name, according to Wikipedia, was Camilla Koffler). It's a pretty good book. It's mostly black and white pictures of animals, with a little bit of text.

You can read more about the real Ylla here: http://pryordodge.net/Ylla.html

And her Wikipedia entry is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ylla

Ray was 24 when this book was published. I think The Martian Chronicles was published in 1950.

This is a not a very common name at all, so, could this be where he got the name from? i think this is very interesting.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: DavidTVC15,

Quite special! Thank You for sharing this!

What a fascinating discovery. Someone should ask Ray if he was aware of this Ylla. I'm sure he would love her cat and lion ("The Veldt"!) photos, and possibly even her portrait of John Huston.

I didn't notice the picture of John Huston until now, and that makes me wonder:

Ray Bradbury and John Huston did spend some some time together in Ireland, working on the script for The African Queen. So maybe John Huston introduced Ray to Ylla? Is this too much of stretch?

With Mr. B there is always some metaphor sneaking around!!!

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/yll%C3%A4

quote:

Originally posted by DavidTVC15:
I didn't notice the picture of John Huston until now, and that makes me wonder:

Ray Bradbury and John Huston did spend some some time together in Ireland, working on the script for The African Queen. So maybe John Huston introduced Ray to Ylla? Is this too much of stretch?

That will be MOBY DICK, not The African Queen. Possibly they did meet, but if so this would post-date the writing of the story "Ylla", which was first published in 1950. Bradbury and Huston worked together from c1954 onwards.

Yes, I knew it was Moby Dick. I just had a momentary lapse of confusion.

quote:

Originally posted by DavidTVC15:
Yes, I knew it was Moby Dick. I just had a momentary lapse of confusion.

If it will make you feel better Huston was finishing up with The African Queen when he offered Moby Dick to Ray.

...and some of the script work on AQ was done by Peter Viertel, who wrote WHITE HUNTER, BLACK HEART inspired by his experiences with Huston...which Bradbury then played on with his title GREEN SHADOW, WHITE WHALE... so it all ties together!