Fahrenheit 451
First edition cover
Author	Ray Bradbury
Illustrator	Joe Mugnani
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Dystopian novel
Publisher	Ballantine Books
Publication date	1953
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	199 pp
ISBN	ISBN 978-0-7432-4722-1 (current hardcover edition)

Fahrenheit 451, is a dystopian soft science fiction novel by Ray Bradbury. It was first published in 1953. The concept began with the 1947 short story "Bright Phoenix" that was only later published in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1963.^[1] The original short story was reworked into the novella, The Fireman, and published in the February 1951 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction. The novel was also serialized in the March, April, and May 1954 issues of Playboy magazine.^[2] It is a critique of what Bradbury saw as an increasingly dysfunctional American society, written in the early years of the Cold War. Fahrenheit 451 may refer to: Fahrenheit 451, a novel by Ray Bradbury Fahrenheit 451 (1966 film), a film adaptation of the novel from 1953 A film project based on the book in development hell, history at Fahrenheit 451#Future film Fahrenheit 451 (computer game), a computer game based on the... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Ray Douglas Bradbury (born August 22, 1920) is an American literary, fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer best known for The Martian Chronicles, a 1950 book which has been described both as a short story collection and a novel, and his 1953 dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451. ... Utopian fiction is the creation of an ideal world as the setting for a novel. ... A publisher is a person or entity which engages in the act of publishing. ... Ballantine Books, founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine, is a major book publisher and is currently owned by Random House. ... See also: 1952 in literature, other events of 1953, 1954 in literature, list of years in literature. ... Hardcover books A hardcover (or hardback or hardbound) is a book bound with rigid protective covers (typically of cardboard covered with cloth, heavy paper, or sometimes leather). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... ISBN redirects here. ... This article is about the philosophical concept and literary form. ... Soft science fiction, or soft SF, like its complementary opposite hard science fiction, is a descriptive term that points to the role and nature of the science content in a science fiction story. ... For other uses, see Novel (disambiguation). ... Ray Douglas Bradbury (born August 22, 1920) is an American literary, fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer best known for The Martian Chronicles, a 1950 book which has been described both as a short story collection and a novel, and his 1953 dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451. ... F&SF April 1971, special Poul Anderson issue. ... A novella is a narrative work of prose fiction somewhat longer than a short story but shorter than a novel. ... The Puppet Masters by Robert A. Heinlein in Galaxy, Sept. ... For other uses, see Playboy (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Cold War (disambiguation). ...

The novel presents a future American society in which the masses are hedonistic, and critical thought through reading is outlawed. The central character, Guy Montag, is employed as a "fireman" (which, in this future, means "book burner"). The number "451" refers to the temperature (in Fahrenheit) at which a book or paper autoignites. A movie version of the novel was released in 1966, and it is anticipated that a second version will begin filming in 2008. At least two BBC Radio 4 dramatizations have also been aired, both of which follow the book very closely. This article does not cite any sources. ... Guy Montag is the central character in Ray Bradburys 1953 novel, Fahrenheit 451. ... Book burning is the practice of ceremoniously destroying by fire one or more copies of a book or other written material. ... Categories: Pages needing attention | Chemistry stubs | Chemistry ... old Radio 4 logo BBC Radio 4 is a UK domestic radio station which broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes including news, drama, comedy, science and history. ...

Over the years, the novel has been subject to various interpretations, primarily focusing on the historical role of book burning in suppressing dissenting ideas. Bradbury has stated that the novel is not about censorship; he states that Fahrenheit 451 is a story about how television destroys interest in reading literature, which ultimately leads to ignorance of total facts.^[3] For the political magazine, see Dissent (magazine). ... For other uses, see Censor. ...

Bradbury has stated that the entirety of his novel was written in the basement of UCLA's Powell library on a pay typewriter. His original intention in writing Fahrenheit 451 was to show his great love for books and libraries. He has often referred to Montag as an allusion to himself. The University of California, Los Angeles (generally known as UCLA) is a public research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. ... An allusion is a figure of speech that makes a reference/representation of/to a well-known person, place, event, literary work, or work of art. ...

Plot summary

Cover of the UK Hart-Davis edition (1954)

Fahrenheit 451 takes place in an unspecified future time in a hedonistic and rabidly anti-intellectual America that has completely abandoned self-control, filled with lawlessness in the streets, from teenagers crashing cars into people to firemen at Montag's station who set their mechanical hound to hunt various animals for the simple and grotesque pleasure of watching them die. Anyone caught reading books is, at the minimum, confined to a mental hospital while the books are burned. Illegal books mainly include famous works of literature, such as Whitman and Faulkner, as well as The Bible, and all historical texts. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Hedonism is a word used to describe any way of thinking that gives pleasure a central role. ... Anti-intellectualism is a term that in one sense describes a hostility towards, or mistrust of, intellectuals and intellectual pursuits. ... For other uses of terms redirecting here, see US (disambiguation), USA (disambiguation), and United States (disambiguation) Motto In God We Trust(since 1956) (From Many, One; Latin, traditional) Anthem The Star-Spangled Banner Capital Washington, D.C. Largest city New York City National language English (de facto)1 Demonym American... Walter Whitman (May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist, journalist, and humanist. ... William Cuthbert Faulkner (born William Falkner), (September 25, 1897–July 6, 1962) was an American author. ...

One night returning from his job, fireman Guy Montag meets his new neighbor Clarisse McClellan, whose free-thinking ideals and liberating spirit force him to question his life, his ideals, and his own perceived happiness. It is later revealed that Clarisse has been killed in a car accident. Clarisse McClellan is a character from Ray Bradburys novel Fahrenheit 451. ...

After meeting Clarisse, he returns home to find his wife Mildred (who sleeps in a separate bed) asleep, with an empty bottle of sleeping pills next to her bed. He calls for medical help, and two technicians respond, who proceed to suck out Mildred's blood with a machine and insert new blood into her. The technicians' utter disregard for Mildred forces Montag to question the state of society.

In the following days, while ransacking the book-filled house of an old woman before the inevitable burning, Montag accidentally reads a line in one of her books: "Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine." This prompts him to steal one of the books. The woman refuses to leave her house and her books, choosing instead to light a match she had concealed from the firemen's view, prematurely igniting the kerosene and martyring herself. This disturbs Montag, and he wonders why someone would die for mere books.

Jarred by the woman's suicide, Montag calls in sick, and receives a visit from his fire Chief Captain Beatty, who explains to him the political and social causes for their occupation. Captain Beatty claims that society, in its search for happiness,and an attempt to minimize cultural offenses through political correctness, brought about the suppression of literature as an act of self-censorship and that the government merely took advantage of the situation. Beatty adds that all firemen eventually steal a book out of curiosity, but all would be well if the book is turned in within 24 hours. Montag argues with his wife, Mildred, over the book, showing his growing disgust for her and for his society.

Soon Montag has hidden dozens of books in the ventilation shafts of his own house, and he tries to memorize them to preserve their contents, but becomes frustrated that the words seem to simply fall away from his memory. He then remembers a man he had met at one time: Faber, a former English professor. Montag seeks Faber's help, and Faber begins teaching Montag about the vagaries and ambiguities but overall importance of literature in its attempt to explain human existence. He also gives Montag a green bullet-shaped ear-piece so that Faber can offer guidance throughout his daily activities.

During a card game at the fire house, Beatty tells Montag he had a dream about him, and relates the literary argument he says they had in his dream. Beatty quotes many books and shows an amazing knowledge of literature to prove to Montag the confusing messages in books. Then follows another call to arms; Beatty theatrically leads the crew to Montag's own home. He reveals that he knew all along of Montag's books, and orders Montag to destroy the house. Montag sees Mildred, who had betrayed his secret, moving away from the house and sets to work burning their home, but Montag is not content destroying the books. He burns the televisions, beds and other emblems of his past life. When Beatty finds Faber's earpiece, he threatens to track Faber down. Montag turns the flamethrower on Beatty, killing him, and then knocks out two other firemen and is soon a fugitive for these crimes. When the fire house's mechanical hound goes after him, he turns the flamethrower on it, destroying it.

He flees to Faber's house, with another fire house's mechanical hound and television network helicopters in hot pursuit. The newscasters hope to document his escape as a spectacle, and distract the people from the oncoming threat of war, a threat that has been foreshadowed throughout the book. Faber tells Montag of vagabond book-lovers in the countryside. Montag escapes, to a local river, floats downstream and meets a group of older men who, to Montag's astonishment, have memorized entire books, preserving them orally until books are allowed again. They burn the books they read to prevent discovery, retaining the verbatim content (and possibly valid interpretations) in their minds. The group leader, Granger, discusses the legendary phoenix and its endless cycle of long life, death in flames, and rebirth, adding the phoenix must have some relation of mankind, constantly going back to its cycle of making mistakes, and not learning from the past. He comments that man can learn, as opposed to the doomed phoenix.

Meanwhile, the television network helicopters surround another man in frustration, and the hound is ordered to attack him. The audience thinks that Montag has died, but he is actually safe.

The war begins. Montag watches helplessly as jet bombers fly overhead and attack the city with nuclear weapons. His wife, Mildred likely dies, though Faber is assumed to have left the city. It is implied that more cities across the country have been incinerated as well, a bitter irony that the world that sought to burn thought, is burned itself. At the moment of the explosion, the stress and emotion of seeing the city burned causes a key phrase from the Bible to emerge from the depths of Montag's memory.

The novel is concluded with a shocking but slightly optimistic tone. It is suggested that the society Montag knew has almost completely collapsed and a new society must be built from the ashes. Whether this new society will meet the same fate is unknown, but it is implied that the book people will begin to build mirror factories (a literary allusion) to show people who they are, what they have become, and how they can change with time and knowledge.

Characters

• Guy Montag is the protagonist and fireman (see above) whose metamorphosis is illustrated throughout the book and who presents the dystopia through the eyes of a loyal worker to it, a man in conflict about it, and one resolved to be free of it. Bradbury notes in his afterword that he noticed, after the book was published, that Montag is the name of a paper company. Ironically, in the years after the book was published a company called Montag (pronounced the same way as the character's name) began manufacturing ovens, although no link to the book is known.
• Faber is a former English professor who represents those who know what is being done is wrong but are too fearful to act. Bradbury notes in his coda that Faber is part of the name of a German manufacturer of pencils, Faber-Castell.
• Mildred Montag is Montag's wife, who tries to hide her own emptiness and fear of questioning her surroundings or herself with meaningless chatter and a constant barrage of television. She constantly tries to reach the glorified state of happiness, but is inwardly miserable. Mildred even makes an attempt at suicide early on in the book by overdosing herself with sleeping pills. She is used symbolically as the opposite of Clarisse McClellan. She is known as Linda Montag in the 1966 film.
• Clarisse McClellan displays every trait Mildred does not. She is outgoing, naturally cheerful, unorthodox and intuitive. She serves as the wake-up call for Guy Montag by posing the question “why?” to him. She is unpopular among peers and disliked by teachers for (as Captain Beatty puts it) asking why instead of how and focusing on nature rather than technology. Montag always regards her as odd until she goes missing; the book gives no definitive explanation. It is said that Captain Beatty and Mildred know that Clarisse has been killed by a car. Her behavior is similar to that of Leonard Mead from Bradbury's short story The Pedestrian. Her uncle, who presumably taught her to think as she does, may be an allusion to that short story, as he was once arrested for being a pedestrian.
• Captain Beatty is Montag's boss and the fire chief. Once an avid reader, he came to hate books due to life's tragedies. He is disgusted with the idea of books and detests the fact that they all contradict and refute each other. In a scene written years later by Bradbury for the Fahrenheit 451 play, he invites Guy to his house where he shows him walls of books which he leaves to molder on their shelves. He tries to entice Guy back into the book-burning business but is burned to death by Montag when he underestimates Montag's resolve. Guy later realizes that Beatty might have wanted to die, provoking Montag to kill him. He is the symbolic opposite of Granger.
• Granger is the leader of a group of wandering intellectual exiles who memorize books so they will be saved. Where Beatty destroys, he preserves; where Beatty uses fire for the purpose of burning, he uses it for the purpose of warming. His acceptance of Montag is considered the final step in Montag's metamorphosis: from embracing Beatty's ultimate value, happiness and complacency, to embracing his value of love of knowledge.
• Mechanical Hound The mechanical hound exists in the original book but not in the 1966 film. It is an emotionless, 8-legged killing machine that can be programmed to seek out and destroy free thinkers, hunting them down by scent. It can remember as many as 10,000 scents of others it is tracking down. The hound is blind to anything but the destruction for which it is programmed. It has a proboscis in a sheath on its snout, which injects lethal amounts of morphine or procaine. Although Montag was able to survive such an injection, he suffered horrible pain for a short time. The first hound encountered in the novel is destroyed when Montag sets it on fire with a flamethrower. The second was programmed to find and kill a scapegoat for the amusement of the viewers of the televised chase for Montag, which in truth was unfruitful. Bradbury notes in his afterword that the hound is "my robot clone of A. Conan Doyle's great Baskerville beast," referring to the famous Sherlock Holmes mystery The Hound of the Baskervilles.
• Mildred's friends (Mrs. Bowles and Mrs. Phelps) Mildred's friends represent the average citizens in the numbed society portrayed in the novel. They are examples of the people in the society who are unhappy but do not think they are. When they are introduced to literature (Dover Beach), which symbolizes the pain and joy that has been censored from them, Mrs. Phelps is overwhelmed by the rush of emotion that she has not felt before.

Guy Montag is the central character in Ray Bradburys 1953 novel, Fahrenheit 451. ... A protagonist is the main figure of a piece of literature or drama and has the main part or role. ... Faber is a cocky character. ... This article is about the handwriting instrument. ... Faber-Castell logo Faber-Castell erasers Faber-Castell is a German manufacturer of writing instruments, art supplies and slide rules, founded in 1761 in Nuremberg by Kaspar Faber. ... Mildred Montag is a minor character in Ray Bradburys Fahrenheit 451. ... For other uses, see Happiness (disambiguation). ... Clarisse McClellan is a character from Ray Bradburys novel Fahrenheit 451. ... The Pedestrian is a short story by author Ray Bradbury. ... Captain Beatty is a Fahrenheit 451 hero, a chief fireman and the head of the Guy Montags fire department, in fact — a book burner (treacherous weapons as he calls books) but with a vast knowledge of literature. ... This article is about the drug. ... Procaine is a local anesthetic drug of the amino ester group. ... Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle, DL (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a Scottish author most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, which are generally considered a major innovation in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger. ... This article is about Arthur Conan Doyles fictional detective. ... The Hound of the Baskervilles is a crime novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, originally serialized in the Strand Magazine in 1901 and 1902, which is set largely on Dartmoor in 1889. ... For other uses, see Dover Beach (disambiguation). ...

Themes

The novel reflects several major concerns of the time of its writing, leading many to interpret it differently than intended by Bradbury (see "Censorship and the effects of mass media" below). Among the themes attributed to the novel were what Bradbury has called "the thought-destroying force" of censorship in the 1950s, the book-burnings in Nazi Germany starting in 1933 and the horrible consequences of the explosion of a nuclear weapon. "I meant all kinds of tyrannies anywhere in the world at any time, right, left, or middle," Bradbury has said.^[4] Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ... The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, 1945, rose some 18 kilometers (11 mi) above the hypocenter A nuclear weapon derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions of fusion or fission. ... This page is about the religious concept of Tyranny. ...

Other themes attributed to the novel are:

• Individual vs. Society
• Importance of Literature
• Value of entertainment over family, relationships, responsibilities and individually motivated lives
• Propaganda
• Censorship, albeit one instigated by the public
• Political Correctness
• Knowledge vs. Ignorance
• Life and Death
• Animal Imagery
• Technology
• Paradoxes
• Religion
• Apathy
• War and Conflict
• Disintegration of Society
• Hope
• Reformation of Society
• Ignorance, see Plato's Allegory of the Cave.

One particularly ironic circumstance is that, unbeknownst to Bradbury, his publisher released a censored edition in 1967, omitting the words "damn" and "hell," for distribution to schools. Later editions with all words restored include a coda from the author describing this event and further thoughts on censorship and "well-meaning" revisionism. As commonly used, individual refers to a person or to any specific object in a collection. ... Young people interacting within an ethnically diverse society. ... A stilt-walker entertaining shoppers at a shopping centre in Swindon, England Entertainment is an activity designed to give pleasure or relaxation to an audience (although in the case of a computer game the audience may be only one person). ... For other uses, see Propaganda (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Censor. ... Political correctness is the alteration of language to redress real or alleged injustices and discrimination or to avoid offense. ... This article is about the concept of the meaning of life. ... By the mid 20th century humans had achieved a mastery of technology sufficient to leave the surface of the Earth for the first time and explore space. ... Look up paradox in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ...

Censorship and the effects of mass media

The novel is frequently interpreted as being critical of state-sponsored censorship, but Bradbury has disputed this interpretation. He said in a 2007 interview that the book explored the effects of television and mass media on the reading of literature.

Yet in the paperback edition released in 1979, Bradbury wrote a new coda for the book containing multiple comments on censorship and its relation to the novel. The coda is also present in the 1987 mass market paperback, which is still in print.

On another occasion, Bradbury observed that the novel touches on the alienation of people by media:

Films

1966 film

Main article: Fahrenheit 451 (1966 film)

Fahrenheit 451 was a film written and directed by François Truffaut and starring Oskar Werner and Julie Christie. The film was released in 1966. For other uses, see Fahrenheit 451 (disambiguation). ... François Roland Truffaut (French IPA: ) (February 6, 1932 – October 21, 1984) was one of the founders of the French New Wave in filmmaking, and remains an icon of the French film industry. ... Julie Frances Christie (born 14 April 1941) is an Academy Award-, Golden Globe-, BAFTA Award-, and Screen Actors Guild Award-winning British actress. ...

Future film

In July 1994, a new film adaptation of Fahrenheit 451 began development with the studio Warner Bros. and actor Mel Gibson, who planned to star in the lead role. Scripts were written by Bradbury, Tony Puryear, and Terry Hayes.^[7] With the project estimated to be expensive and Gibson believing himself too old to portray the film's protagonist Guy Montag,^[8] the actor decided in 1997 to instead direct the film. By 1999, he had planned to begin filming with actor Brad Pitt in the lead role, but Gibson was forced to postpone due to Pitt's unavailability.^[7] Actor Tom Cruise was also approached for the lead role, but a deal was never made.^[8] According to Gibson, there was difficulty in finding a script that would be appropriate for the film, and that with the advent of computers, the concept of book-burning in a futuristic period may no longer work.^[7] “WB” redirects here. ... Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson, AO (born January 3, 1956) is an American-Australian actor, historian, Academy Award-winning director, producer and screenwriter. ... Terry Hayes is an English screenwriter and producer born on the 8 October 1951. ... Guy Montag is the central character in Ray Bradburys 1953 novel, Fahrenheit 451. ... William Bradley Brad Pitt (born December 18, 1963) is an Academy award-nominated American actor, film producer, and social activist. ... Tom Cruise (born Thomas Cruise Mapother IV on July 3, 1962) is an Academy Award-nominated, Golden Globe Award-winning American actor and film producer. ...

In February 2001, the project was revived as director Frank Darabont entered negotiations with Warner Bros. to rewrite Terry Hayes's script and direct the film.^[8] Gibson was confirmed to be involved only as a producer, and Darabont planned to complete the script by the end of 2002.^[9] In July 2004, Darabont said that he had completed the script and hoped to begin filming Fahrenheit 451 after completing a script for Mission: Impossible III.^[10] Darabont did not begin Fahrenheit 451 immediately, instead going on to direct The Mist. The director said in November 2006 that he would do long-term preparation work for Fahrenheit 451 while filming The Mist and hoped that he would begin filming after The Mist was completed.^[11] Frank Darabont (born January 28, 1959) is a three-time Academy Award nominated[1]American film director, screenwriter and producer. ... The Mist, also known as Stephen Kings The Mist, is a 2007 American horror film based on the 1980 novella The Mist by Stephen King. ...

In August 2007, Darabont expressed his intent to film Fahrenheit 451 in the summer of 2008, and that he would place the story's setting in an "intentionally nebulous" future, approximately 50 years from the contemporary period. Darabont planned to keep certain elements from the book, such as the mechanical hound, in the film. The director did not comment on rumors of Tom Hanks as Guy Montag. The director said that the protagonist had been cast and would be announced soon.^[12] The following November, the director confirmed Hanks's involvement with the film and described the actor to be "the perfect embodiment of the regular guy".^[13] In March 2008, Hanks withdrew from the film, citing prior commitments as the reason. Darabont is now looking for a new lead, explaining the difficulty, "It needs to be somebody like [Hanks] who has the ability to trigger a greenlight but is also the right guy for the part. It's a narrow target. It's a short list of people."^[14] Thomas Jeffrey Tom Hanks (born July 9, 1956) is a two-time Academy Award-, two-time Emmy-, four-time Golden Globe- and Screen Actors Guild Award-winning American film actor, director, voice-over artist, writer and film producer. ...

Allusions and references in other works

50th Anniversary Edition cover

The title of Bradbury's book has become a well-known byword amongst those who oppose censorship, in much the way George Orwell's 1984 or Aldous Huxley's Brave New World have (although not to the same extent). As such, it has been alluded to many times, including in the ACLU's 1997 white paper Fahrenheit 451.2: Is Cyberspace Burning?^[15] and Michael Moore's 2004 documentary Fahrenheit 9/11. Bradbury objected to the latter's allusion to his work, claiming that Moore "stole my title and changed the numbers without ever asking me for permission."^[16] Fahrenheit 451 book cover This image is a book cover. ... Fahrenheit 451 book cover This image is a book cover. ... For other uses, see Censor. ... George Orwell is the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903[1][2] – 21 January 1950) who was an English writer and journalist well-noted as a novelist, critic, and commentator on politics and culture. ... This article is about the Orwell novel. ... Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. ... For other uses, see Brave New World (disambiguation). ... The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is an American organization consisting of two separate entities: the ACLU Foundation, a non-profit organization that focuses on litigation and communication efforts, and the American Civil Liberties Union which focuses on legislative lobbying and does not have non-profit status. ... Michael Francis Moore (born April 23, 1954) is an American political-activist, a film director, author, social commentator, and political humorist. ... Fahrenheit 9/11 is a controversial, award-winning documentary film by American left-wing filmmaker Michael Moore which presents a critical look at the presidency of George W. Bush, the War on Terrorism, and its coverage in the American news media. ...

Artist Micah Wright used the theme "Hand all books to your local fireman for safe disposal" overlaid on a 1940s fireman propaganda poster. Micah Ian Wright is an author who has worked in film, animation, video games, and comic books (Stormwatch: Team Achilles). ...

Hungarian poet György Faludy includes the lines in the opening stanza of his 1983 poem "Learn by Heart This Poem of Mine": "Learn by heart this poem of mine, / Books only last a little time, / And this one will be borrowed, scarred, [...] / Or slowly brown and self-combust, / When climbing Fahrenheit has got / To 451, for that's how hot / it will be when your town burns down. / Learn by heart this poem of mine."^[17] A poet is a person who writes poetry. ... György Faludy or George Faludy (September 22, 1910, Budapest - September 1, 2006, Budapest) was a Hungarian-Jewish poet, writer and translator. ...

The rat things, cybernetic guard dogs in Neal Stephenson's cyberpunk novel Snow Crash, are closely related to Bradbury's mechanical hounds. Neal Town Stephenson (born October 31, 1959) is an American writer, known primarily for his science fiction works in the postcyberpunk genre with a penchant for explorations of society, mathematics, currency, and the history of science. ... Snow Crash is Neal Stephensons third science fiction novel, published in 1992. ...

The theme and plot of the movie Equilibrium, starring Christian Bale and Sean Bean, draws heavily from Fahrenheit 451, as well as from 1984 and Brave New World. Equilibrium is a 2002 action/science fiction film written and directed by Kurt Wimmer. ... Christian Charles Philip Bale (also known professionally as Christian Morgan Bale; born 30 January 1974) is a Screen Actors Guild Award-nominated, Saturn Award-winning Welsh actor[2][3] whose film credits include Empire of the Sun, American Psycho, Equilibrium, The Machinist, Batman Begins and the upcoming The Dark Knight. ... Shaun Mark Bean (born 17 April 1959) is an English film and stage actor. ...

Ray Bradbury also alludes to himself in his book Let's All Kill Constance as the main character, a writer, thinks about writing a book about a "hero who smells of kerosene" and muses about the possibility of books being used to start fires in the future. Lets All Kill Constance is a mystery novel by Ray Bradbury, published in 2003. ...

The character of Sonmi~451 in David Mitchell's dystopia Cloud Atlas is likely to be a reference to Fahrenheit 451. The main theme evolving around her is the importance of literature as a cornerstone of human culture and society. David Mitchell is the name of: David Mitchell (author) (born 1969), author of Ghostwritten, number9dream and Cloud Atlas David Mitchell (actor) (born 23 July 1974), star of UK television show Peep Show and BBC Radio 4s That Mitchell and Webb Sound David Mitchell (admiral) (c1642-1710), British admiral of... Cover design Cloud Atlas is a 2004 novel, the third book by British author David Mitchell. ...

A 1986 computer text adventure revisits the story of Fahrenheit 451. The real-time strategy game StarCraft includes a flamethrower-wielding character named Gui Montag, after the protagonist of the book. For other uses, see Fahrenheit 451 (disambiguation). ... -1... “Starcraft” redirects here. ...

In R.O.D the TV's episode 16, all the books from jimbo-cho are gathered and burned in an event entitled operation Fahrenheit 451 R.O.D -THE TV- is a 26-episode TV anime series, animated by J.C.STAFF and produced by Aniplex, directed by Koji Masunari and scripted by Yousuke Kuroda, about the adventures of three paper-manipulating sisters, Michelle, Maggie and Anita, who become the bodyguards of Nenene Sumiregawa, a...

In the sixth episode of the 2008 Japanese anime, Toshokan Sensō (図書館戦争, Toshokan Sensō^? lit. "Library War"), a book referred to as "The Book of Prophecy" simply titled K505 was targeted for termination. This title alludes to Fahrenheit 451, as K505 can be read as 505 units of the Kelvin measurement of temperature that approximates 451 degrees Fahrenheit. Characters in the series' fictional, near-future setting also reference the book as being written "60 years ago" and how "a French director adapted it into a film." Animé redirects here. ... For other uses, see Kelvin (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Fahrenheit (disambiguation). ...

Dozens of other references to the novel occur in television, music, and video games.

Printings

"The Fireman" (Galaxy Science Fiction, Vol. 1 No. 5, February 1951) The Puppet Masters by Robert A. Heinlein in Galaxy, Sept. ...

First edition (1953)^[2] – This edition was actually published in three formats, and included two short stories: "The Playground" and "And the Rock Cried Out"

• Paperback (Ballantine No. 41) – The true first edition, preceding the hardcovers by six weeks.
• Standard hardcover – Limited to about 4,500 copies.
• Asbestos hardcover – Just over 200 copies were signed and numbered, before being bound in "Johns-Manville Quinterra", a fire resistant asbestos material.

Later editions:^[2] To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... Ballantine Books, founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine, is a major book publisher and is currently owned by Random House. ... Hardcover books A hardcover (or hardback or hardbound) is a book bound with rigid protective covers (typically of cardboard covered with cloth, heavy paper, or sometimes leather). ... For other uses, see Asbestos (disambiguation). ...

• Serialized version (Playboy, March, April, & May 1954)
• First British hardcover edition (Rupert Hart-Davis, 1954) – Title novel only.
• Science Fiction Book Club (London, 1955) – Title novel only.
• First British paperback edition (Corgi No. T389, 1957) – Title novel only.
• Student edition (Bal-Hi, 1967) – Includes a two page "Note to Teachers and Parents" by Richard Tyre. Reprinted ten times through 1973.
• Hardcover edition (Simon & Schuster, 1967) – Full contents of the first edition (novel and two short stories) with a new introduction by Bradbury.
• Special Book Club edition (1976)
• Hardcover edition (Del Rey Gold Seal, 1981) – Issued without a dust jacket, and includes "Investing Dimes", an afterword by Bradbury.
• Hardcover edition (Limited Editions Club, 1982) – Issued in a slipcase without a dust jacket, and includes an original lithograph and threefold-out color plates by Joseph Mugnaini. 2000 copies were signed by Bradbury & Mugnaini.
• Large print cloth edition (G K Hall & Co., 1988, ISBN 0745171060)
• Hardcover edition (Buccaneer Books, 1995, ISBN 089968484X) – Issued without a dust jacket, and includes the "Investing Dimes" afterword, and a "Coda" by Bradbury.
• 40th anniversary cloth edition (Simon & Schuster, 1996) – Limited to 7500 copies, with 500 signed and numbered by Bradbury.
• Trade paper edition (Del Rey, 1996, ISBN 0345410017)
• Mass-market paperback edition (Del Rey, ISBN 0345342968)

In Canada

• First Edition - February 1963
• Seventh Printing - October 1972

For other uses, see Playboy (disambiguation). ... Sir Rupert Charles Hart-Davis (August 28, 1907 - December 8, 1999) was a British publisher, literary editor, and man of letters, founder of the publishing company Rupert Hart-Davis Ltd. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... Ballantine Books, founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine, is a major book publisher and is currently owned by Random House. ... Jean-François Millet Le Semeur (The Sower) Simon & Schuster logo, circa 1961. ... Del Rey Books is a branch of Ballantine Books, which is owned by Random House. ... Jean-François Millet Le Semeur (The Sower) Simon & Schuster logo, circa 1961. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Del Rey Books is a branch of Ballantine Books, which is owned by Random House. ...

Notes

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References

• Tuck, Donald H. (1974). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Chicago: Advent, 62. ISBN 0-911682-20-1. 

• Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Ballantine Books, 1953

Author of A Handbook of Science Fiction and Fantasy. ... Advent: Publishers is a publishing house founded by Earl Kemp and other members of the University of Chicago Science Fiction Club in 1956, to publish criticism, history, and bibliography of the science fiction field, beginning with James Blishs The Issue at Hand. ...

Further reading

• Bustard, Ned (2004), Fahrenheit 451 Comprehension Guide, Veritas Press.

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Fahrenheit 451

• Fahrenheit 451 at the Internet Movie Database
• Fahrenheit 451 publication history at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Ray Bradbury reading Fahrenheit 451 online multimedia e-book (Chapter 1).