Ray Bradbury, the Waukegan-born author who died Tuesday night, had some amazing accomplishments. But one nonaccomplishment is also noteworthy: He never got a driver's license. Here are other nondrivers whose careers accelerated:

Studs Terkel: The famed Chicago writer used to take the bus to his radio job at WFMT-FM.

Mae West: The actress drove a car only once — when her father tried and failed to teach her. "I did enjoy, every once in a while, buying a nice car for someone else to drive me around in," she said.

Woodrow Wilson: The 28th president didn't drive, but he enjoyed riding in cars to relax.

Frank Phillips: The founder of Phillips Petroleum, a company that made billions of dollars from car travel, declared: "I'm a thinking machine. I don't have time to drive."

Jack Kerouac: The author of the quintessential road novel,"On the Road," drove rarely and hesitatingly, once saying he didn't "know how to drive, just typewrite."

Vladimir Nabokov: This nondriver wrote "Lolita," in which a key character is fatally struck by a car.

Erich von Stroheim: When he played the chauffeur in the film "Sunset Boulevard," he was only pretending to drive. In fact, the car was being towed.

Elizabeth Bishop: The famed poet bought at least two cars in her life but didn't learn how to drive either one of them.

Albert Einstein: Who says he was a genius? He didn't even know how to drive.

mjacob@tribune.com

SOURCES: "Oil Man," by Michael Wallis; "Vladimir Nabokov: The Russian Years," by Brian Boyd; "Woodrow Wilson: A Biography," by John Milton Cooper; "Von: The Life and Films of Erich von Stroheim," by Richard Koszarski; "Einstein: A Life," by Denis Brian; "Kerouac: A Biography," by Ann Charters; "Conversations With Elizabeth Bishop," by George Monteiro; "She Always Knew How: Mae West, a Personal Biography," by Charlotte Chandler; uchicago.edu