Read the Letter: Ray Bradbury Honors a Beloved English Teacher

In 1979, novelist Ray Bradbury learned that his favorite high school teacher had died. In response, he wrote a touching letter expressing his appreciation for her influence on him.

Oct 18, 2016

Originally published on: Apr 27, 2015

BY Luke Crafton

Appraisal: Ray Bradbury Archive

Transcript

GUEST: I have brought you a collection of books by Ray Bradbury. My husband's aunt, Jennet Johnson, was a teacher in Los Angeles High School and taught English.

APPRAISER: Uh-huh.

GUEST: When Ray was 17, he took her class in short story writing, and it seems to have been a seminal influence on his writing because he would send her books that had just come out with wonderful dedications in them to her.

APPRAISER: All the books that are here on display are all inscribed and signed to your aunt. And the first, earliest inscription I found on the copy of the paperback, it's an inscription from 1951 where he is very complimentary to your aunt. It's a lengthy inscription signed by Ray Bradbury. The second inscription that I really liked was done in 1962, and it is in this copy of Ray Bradbury's novel Something Wicked. And this is the presentation copy to the dedicatee.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: He dedicated this book to your aunt, and it says here, "To Miss Johnson, "I've said it all on the dedication page, "but additionally, here is...", and he recreates the design of the cover.

GUEST: I love that, yes.

APPRAISER: And then he signs it here, "September 1, 1962." And the dedication page, where he says, in print, "With gratitude to Jennet Johnson, who taught me how to write the short story." And for an English teacher, I think that is an incredible achievement to teach someone like Ray Bradbury how to write, and it is very forthcoming of him to keep her in his heart and to acknowledge her influence. And that reaches all the way into the 1970s, where he published another book that he dedicated to her, and this one is inscribed and signed by Ray Bradbury. In addition to all this, can you tell me a little bit about the letter that you brought?

GUEST: I knew that Ray loved Auntie Jane, and when she died, I sent him a short note to let him know that she was gone. And this is the letter he wrote in response, in which he talks about how much she meant to him.

APPRAISER: Yes, it is an extremely moving and emotional letter. I was so impressed by this group and also by the way it reaches from 1951 all the way to 1979. Have you had the books ever appraised?

GUEST: No, we never have. Auntie Jane would send them to us as she got them, and we are saving them for our boys. We don't intend to sell them.

APPRAISER: Well, if you were to offer the books at auction, I would recommend to keep them all together. My conservative estimate would be $6,000 to $8,000.

GUEST: Goodness. Okay, that's good to know. We will take good care of them.

APPRAISER: I would figure the insurance to be right around $12,000.

GUEST: Okay, good.

APPRAISER: There's just one thing that would make a wonderful difference: if you had also his most famous book, Fahrenheit 451.

GUEST: Oh, I know.

APPRAISER: A nice copy of a first edition of that with an inscription could easily sell for $10,000, $15,000.

GUEST: Oh, goodness gracious.

At the Santa Clara ROADSHOW in June 2014, Books & Manuscripts expert Ian Ehling appraised a collection of books by celebrated science fiction novelist Ray Bradbury, including Something Wicked This Way Comes, and The Martian Chronicles. Jennet Johnson, a relative of the archive's owner, had been an influential and much-loved English teacher of Bradbury's at Los Angeles High School in the 1930s.

One of the personal inscriptions from Bradbury contained in the collection.

Best known for his 1953 dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury had sent copies of his books periodically to Ms. Johnson over nearly three decades, and the collection included a number of personal inscriptions from the author to his former teacher. One says simply, and powerfully, "To Jennet Johnson, who taught me how to write the short story."

One of the earliest reads, "CHRISTMAS WISHES FOR 1951 TO MISS JENNET JOHNSON — AND MANY THANKS AND UNENDING GRATITUDE FOR THE THINGS YOU TAUGHT ME WHEN I WAS 17 — THAT HAVE HELPED ME ALL DOWN THE YEARS IN MY WORK — MY BEST WISHES ALWAYS! FROM RAY BRADBURY L.A. HI. SUMMER '38"

Also preserved with the archive is an emotional letter from Bradbury, dated December 26, 1979, responding to the news that Jennet Johnson had recently died.

Taking the whole archive of books and letter into account, while noting that unfortunately it happens to lack a copy of Bradbury's most famous work, Ehling placed an insurance value on the collection of $12,000.

"Everything that teaching and the love of teaching ever was, she lived." — Ray Bradbury, of his high school English teacher, Jennet Johnson

You can read the full text of Bradbury's letter below. Ray Bradbury died in 2012.

Letter from Ray Bradbury to

DEC. 26, 1979 Dear Mrs. Tabor: Thank you for your Christmas note and the loving words you said about Jennet Johnson and her passing in the last week before Christmas. I wept, of course, but then quickly thought, as you did, of the goodness of this woman, and her influence on many, including myself. She was always and forever the friendly teacher, not the nagging one, no, but the gentle inquirer who asked after your reading health. The list of authors she introduced me to is long and wondrous, including many fine women whose work very much influenced mine as the years passed. The first time I heard THE MONKEY'S PAW it was from her lips one morning in the autumn of 1935, in her Short Story Class. It marked me. A tale, somewhat similar, can be found in my THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES, titled THE MARTIAN. Re-reading it, a few years ago, I saw how much the ghost of W.W. Jacobs, through Jennet Johnson, had stayed with me through the years. Will you please drop me a note and tell me where Jennet is buried? I would like to visit the place and bring flowers and talk to her one day soon. I know what her ghost will ask me: "Ray, what have you been reading, lately?" And I will have to answer. God rest her dear spirit. Everything that teaching and the love of teaching ever was, she lived. Her honorary son tells you this. Again, thank you for your beautifully worded letter. Ray Bradbury