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Ray Bradbury's original manuscript "Fahrenheit 451" at Cal State Fullerton

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Sharon Perry, University Archivist and Special Collections Librarian at Cal State Fullerton, has held the position since 1985. At right is a very large bust of former university president Jewel Plummer Cobb, which was made by a former student and is now part of the collection. EUGENE GARCIA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

There is only one place in the world that has Ray Bradbury's original manuscript of “Fahrenheit 451”: Cal State Fullerton's Archives & Special Collections.

Bradbury, who died in 2012, wrote a number of science-fiction books that dwelled on morality, including “Dandelion Wine,” “The Martian Chronicles” and “The Illustrated Man.”

The university also has drafts of “The Fireman,” Bradbury's short story that sparked “Fahrenheit 451,” set in a future where books are outlawed and firemen hunt down illegally stashed books and set them on fire.

“It's not all of his papers, just a few, but some of the key ones,” said Sharon Perry, university archivist, special collections librarian and coordinator.

The Archives & Special Collections, in the south wing of Pollak Library, has nearly 60 collections, which are available to the public.

There is the Roy V. Boswell Collection for the History of Cartography, a collection of pre-1901 maps; the Freedom Center of Political, Social & Religious Ephemera, writings representing the political movements of the 20th century; and a collection of books written by Cal State Fullerton faculty.

The newest collection is the Darryl and Doris Curran Art, Culture and Poetry Collection. Doris Curran created the Poetry Reading Series at UCLA.

But the most popular collection is its assorted science fiction, which includes books, magazines, manuscripts, even a Tribble, Perry said.

A Tribble is a puffy fur-ball critter that came with the “Star Trek” TV series script, “The Trouble with Tribbles,” an episode in which the U.S.S. Enterprise becomes overrun with the critters. The special collection has photocopies of original “Star Trek” scripts.

The sci-fi collections see mostly off-campus visitors, some from as far away as Europe, Perry said. The second most frequented collection is local history, used mostly by students and faculty, she said.

Sci-fi works include pulp magazines, printed on cheap pulp (paper) and known for their sensational, often racy, colorful covers, as well as manuscripts of Philip K. Dick, who lived in Fullerton and Santa Ana for a time, and Frank Herbert, author of the “Dune” chronicles.

Much of the sci-fi collection was acquired in the 1960s and '70s under the leadership of the Cal State Fullerton professor Willis McNelly.

McNelly, who died in 2003, was a pioneer of sorts. Inspired by Cornell University's new science-fiction class, he launched a sci-fi course at Cal State Fullerton in the mid-1960s.

“He introduced science fiction as a respected academic subject,” Perry said. “Science fiction had a great fan base and practitioner base, but it wasn't widely perceived in academics as a legitimate focus of study.”

McNelly, an authority on the works of James Joyce, T.S. Eliot and other literary figures, went to science-fiction conventions and formed personal relationships with sci-fi authors. He was close friends with Bradbury, Dick and Herbert.

Dick was a guest lecturer in McNelly's classes, Perry said. He was a known figure on campus. While living in Fullerton, Dick wrote, “Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said,” “Confessions of a Crap Artist,” and “A Scanner Darkly,” according to an article by McNelly. “A Scanner Darkly” was adapted into a 2006 movie of the same name starring Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr. and Winona Ryder.

McNelly also described driving back from Herbert's Bay Area residence in the late 1960s, gleeful because his trunk was full of Herbert's “Dune” manuscripts.

“McNelly himself wrote the Dune Encyclopedia, with Herbert's blessing,” Perry said. “He edited that as a labor of love.”

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