Publication of Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian novel by the American writer Ray Bradbury, set in a future society where books are banned and firemen are sent to burn them. The title refers to the temperature at which, according to the author, paper catches fire and burns. The story follows Guy Montag, a fireman who begins to question his work after meeting a young neighbour, Clarisse, and starts secretly reading. Bradbury expanded it from an earlier short story, and he is said to have written much of it on a rented typewriter in a university library. He often said it was less about state censorship than about how television and mass entertainment erode reading. A 1966 film by Francois Truffaut brought it to a wider audience.

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