FAHRENHEIT 451. New York: Ballantine Books, [1953]. Octavo, original red boards, front and spine panels stamped in yellow. First edition. Brief inscription by Bradbury to "John" dated 5 February 1977 on the front free endpaper. The hardbound trade issue. (Currey binding D [no priority]). A short novel expanded from the novella "The Fireman" published in 1951. "While the jet bombers boom overhead and another nuclear war threatens, Americans live a mindless life in a society where everyone is encouraged to lose himself in such distractions as four-wall television, hearing-aid radios, high-speed travel, and group sports. Life is reduced to the paste-pudding norm of a mass audience, for it serves the purpose of the government to keep people from thinking ... The gadget are, of course, marvelous and everywhere, while the greatest enemies of the status quo are books, which, when they are occasionally discovered, are burned by firemen who are, in this fireproof age, no longer needed to put out fires, but to set them ..." - Hillegas, The Future as Nightmare, pp. 158-9. "In a totalitarian state, books are burned and private thought or action is criminal." - Gerber, Utopian Fantasy (1973), p. 159. Filmed in 1966 by Francois Truffaut. Anatomy of Wonder (2004) II-153. Pringle, Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels 8. Survey of Science Fiction Literature II, pp. 749-55. A fine copy in very good price-clipped dust jacket with light wear and several tiny tears at edges, mainly along top edge, and considerable foxing, mostly internal, but with some show though on the outer surface, most on the front panel, and some fade of orange ink on spine panel. (#172724).
Price: $7,500.00
No statement of printing.