1. The book initially began as “Bright Phoenix”, a story about a librarian who confronts a "Chief Censor" who has been burning books. Written by Bradbury in the years of 1947-1948, the story wan't actually published until 1963.

2. Bradbury writes “The Pedestrian” after a run in with an overzealous police officer in the summer of 1951, where the protagonist is harassed by an automated police cruiser for taking nighttime walks

3. Bradbury combined the concepts present in “Bright Phoenix”and“The Pedestrian”in his novella “The Fireman”, published in the February issue of Galaxy Science Fiction."The Fireman" was written in the basement of UCLA's Powell Library on a typewriter that he rented for a fee of ten cents per half hour. The first draft was 25,000 words long and was completed in nine days.

4. After being urged by a publisher at Ballantine Books to lengthen “The Fireman,” He proceeded to write Fahrenheit 451 in another 9 days.

The text adventure game made an appearance on the magazine American Libraries, recommending it as a computer game that gets kids to read literature.

"All-text interactive fiction is also the best type of game for libraries to purchase and circulate because it requires a lot of reading. Some libraries have encouraged it, playing host to adventure clubs. Others have allowed them to be counted as books read for a summer reading program"

- American Libraries, Vol. 17 no. 2

"I wrote this book at a time when I was worried about the way things were going in this country four years ago. Too many people were afraid of their shadows, there was a threat of book burning. Many of the books were being taken off the shelves at that time."

However, over time, Bradbury's interpretation of the novel changed. In later interviews in the 1960s and beyond, his ideas changed and he began to explain the novel as a parable of the separation and alienation caused by technology.

1982 - BBC Radio produced a radio play based on the novel.

1984 - Fahrenheit 451 the text adventure game is published for Macintosh, DOS, Commodore 64, and Apple II computers.

2006 - A stage play version is produced by the Godlight Theater Company and goes on to win a 'Pick of the Fringe' award at the Edinburgh Festival.

2009 - Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451: The Authorized Adaptation, a graphic novel version of the story by Tim Hamilton, is published.

1954 - American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature

- Commonwealth Club of California Gold Medal

1976 - Spoken Word Grammy nomination for the audiobook, recorded by Bradbury

1984 - Prometheus Hall of Fame Award

2004 - Earned the "Retro Hugo" for 1954

• 1987: Classified as a "third-tier" novel in the Bay County School District in Panama City, FL, effectively removing it from school curriculum for its vulgarity. A class action lawsuit later abandoned their tier system and approved the book for students.

• 1992: "Obscene" words blacked out in Irvine, CA schools. Unwanted media attention later resulted in the redistribution of uncensored copies.

• 2006: In Montgomery County, TX, parents of a student complained that the book should be removed from the curriculum for its vulgar words and depictions of Bible burnings. This incident led to no changes in the actual curriculum, as the student was given an alternative reading assignment.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Review by: Rodney A. Smolla

Michigan Law Review , Vol. 107, No. 6, 2009 Survey of Books Related to the Law (Apr., 2009), pp. 895-91

This source notes how the major theme of censorship is explored in the novel. It frequently points to Batty’s explanation for how the banning of books came to be. In the book, it is said that the books first became censored by the general populace, as people avoided books that offended. Soon enough, authors stopped writing thought-provoking books, and then stopped writing altogether. In the novel, Beatty cites the contradictory nature of the different novels, claiming that this makes them useless. The article claims that this quality of literature is what makes it so great, and lauds Fahrenheit 451 as an example of great literature functioning in society.

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Now Was Then, Then Is Now: The Paradoxical World of Fahrenheit 451

Written by: Michael R. LaBrie

LaBrie, Michael R. Now Was Then, Then Is Now: The Paradoxical World of Fahrenheit 451. Thesis. Salve Regina University, 2010. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Web. 24 Nov. 2013.

In this article, LaBrie juxtaposes the society that is represented in the novel Fahrenheit 451 and modern American society. LaBrie touches on things such as materialism, virtual media, and literature and how they have changed for the past five decades. By doing so, LaBrie shows how Fahrenheit 451, after more than 50 years since its publication, still serves as an important dystopian novel today. Its themes of conformity vs. freethinking and powerful governments are universal and impactful. There's no doubt that it will only become more relevant as time goes on.

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“As the Constitution Says”: Distinguishing Documents in Ray Bradbury’s FAHRENHEIT 451

Brown, Joseph F.; Explicator, 2008 Fall; 67 (1): 55-58. (journal article), Database: MLA International Bibliography

Brown points out a mistake made by Captain Beatty, the leader of the men with the responsibility to burn books, which is a misquote of the United States constitution that actually belonged to the Declaration of Independence. Independence is simply not a part of peoples' lives in this dystopian society. “We must all be alike,” explains Beatty, “not everyone born free and equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone made equal” (58; emphasis in original). Brown points out that this is not a simple mistake; the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence were two documents separated by more than a decade and had a different audience and purpose. This mistake encapsulates exactly what Bradbury is trying to warn against, a path towards illiteracy and societal fundemantalism.

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Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 Explicator . Spring96 1996;54(3):177

  This article by Rafeeq McGiveron deconstructs Bradbury's use of imagery involving hands throughout the novel. The article talks about how hands are used by Bradbury as "significant reflectors of conscience." Through the novel, the descriptions of hands represent the mental states of their owners. As an example, McGiveron points to the description of Montag stealing a book from the fire. Throughout the passage, Bradbury describes Montag's hands as moving on their own, out of his control. The hands actions reflect on the conscience of Montag, though he doesn't yet realize it. The descriptions of hands moving on their own continues throughout the novel. At the end of the article, McGiveron points out that all of the descriptions in the novel seem to attest that actions speak louder than words, and that Bradbury's many explicit references to hands makes this theme plain.

1984, George Orwell (1949)

Bradbury, Ray. Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451: The Authorized Adaptation. Illus. Tim Hamilton 

New York: Hill and Wang, 2009. Print. 

• Provides social criticisms

• Wide appeal and interpretation

• Incidences of Banning

• Various adaptations

• Awards

Don’t question what I do
Questions are just for fools
Houses have always been flame proof
Firemen don’t put out flames
we've always burnt books
everyone knows

Peter Sisario argues that Bradbury alludes to the mythical Phoenix, with messages of rebirth from fire.

Sisario also argues that Bradbury's frequent use of Biblical allusions supports this idea of rebirth and the cyclical nature of life.