When was Fahernheit 451 written?

Question

I need to find some information on the time when Ray Bradbury's book was written. I have not found any information on it for the past few hours. Can I please have your help?

Answer 1

Well, it was published in 1953, though I don't know how long it took Bradbury to write it.

Read below for some info.

Answer 2

Ray indeed did write Fahrenheit 451 on a rental typewriter in the basement of the UCLA library. I had another phone interview with Ray recently regarding F451 both the original story, The Fireman, and the novel and the first movie. Ray 'birthed' the first version of the story in nine days and with $9.80 worth of dimes. Between typing sessions he was running upstairs to look up books in the library. Later, sorry my ntes aren't at hand, he extended the story to the 50,000 word novel.

If you wanted to see a screening of the only 35mm widescreen print of F451 in the Universal archives you might try to make it to Waukegan Illinois and the 2,000 seat Genesee Theatre this Saturday (8/19) for an 8 PM show! It will be preceded by a couple short videos I've produced about Ray Bradbury and F 451, thus the need for me to get additional background on the specific details of F 451.

Info on the film fest in Ray's childhood home is at:

http://www.geneseetheatre.com/

Enjoy!

Wayne Munn

Answer 3

Farenheit 451 was originally published in 1953 and was one of the few books whose true first edition is actually a paperback. The hardback was published a few months after the paperback. Interesting fact Ray Bradbury's first name really is Ray not Raymond.

Answer 4

Ray Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451 in the early 1950s as a reaction to the McCarthy era.

I heard an interview with him via telephone a few years ago. Several libraries in the N.E. Ohio area participated in a One Community, One Book program. (We called North Coast Neighbors Share a Book). As a part of this program, Mr. Bradbury agreed to a phone interview.

He was asked about how he came to write the book. He said he was a young husband and father and had to find time to write in between teaching. He took a room in a library at UCLA (I believe) and wrote his story on an electric typewriter. He told us about bringing rolls of dimes in with him while he wrote it.

I believe he wrote the story in a very short amount time (he was running out of dimes!)

I hope this helps. It's not about the "theme" of the story, but it has nice human interest touch to it.

Answer 5

Go to amazon.com In 'Books' do a search for 'Fahrenheit 451'. Scroll down until you find the ISBN number, and the copyright should be listed there. OR, amazon.com does the 'look inside this book' thing, and you can check the information page behind the cover page where it will have the copyright. If I had mine on me, I'd tell you right off, but it's at home. Awesome book, though.

Answer 6

Fahrenheit 451, one of his best-known novels, was published in 1953. It was originally published as a short story, and Bradbury later expanded it to its current length.

The story of fireman Guy Montag first appeared in "The Fireman", a short story by Ray Bradbury published in Galaxy Science Fiction in 1951. Montag's story was expanded two years later, in 1953, and was published as Fahrenheit 451. While the novel is most often classified as a work of science fiction, it is first and foremost a social criticism warning against the danger of censorship. Fahrenheit 451 uses the genre of science fiction, which enjoyed immense popularity at the time of the book's publication, as a vehicle for his message that unchecked oppressive government irreparably damages society by limiting the creativity and freedom of its people. In particular, the "dystopia" motif popular in science fiction - a futuristic technocratic and totalitarian society that demands order and harmony at the expense of individual rights - serves the novel well.

Developed in the years following World War II, Fahrenheit 451 condemns not only the anti-intellectualism of the defeated Nazi party in Germany, but more immediately the intellectually oppressive political climate of the early 1950's - the heyday of McCarthyism. That such influential fictional social criticisms such as Orwell's Animal Farm 1984 and Skinner's Walden Two were published just a few short years prior to Fahrenheit 451 is not coincidental. These works reveal a very real apprehension of the danger of the US evolving into an oppressive, authoritarian society in the post-WWII period.

On a more personal level, Bradbury used Fahrenheit 451 as a vehicle through which to protest what he believed to be the invasiveness of editors who, through their strict control of the books they printed, impair writers' originality and creativity. Ironically, Fahrenheit 45I, itself a vehicle of protest against censorship, has often been edited for foul language.

Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury's most popular novel, has been reprinted scores of times since initially published in 1953. The lessons of this American classic, the dangers of censorship and government control, have become increasingly important and the novel is as relevant today as it was when first written.

at the age of 17, Bradbury became a member of the Los Angeles Science Fiction League, through which he published his first work, a short lived science fiction fan magazine. Bradbury's first short story was published in Weird Tales when he was 20. This was the first of many professional publications of Bradbury's work, which includes Dark Carnival (1947), Martian Chronicles (1950), The Illustrated Man (1951), The Golden Apples of the Sun (1953), Dandelion Wine (1957), Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962), Death is a Lonely Business (1985), The April Witch (1987), Death Has Lost Its Charm (1987), The Toynbee Collector (1988), Graveyard for Lunatics (1990), Folon's Folon's (1990), Zen in the Art of Writing: Essays on Creativity (1991), and A Chrestomathy of Ray Bradbury: A Dramatic Selection (1991) in addition to Fahrenheight 451 (1953).

In addition to his numerous books and short stories, Bradbury wrote for years for both Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Twilight Zone. He has written two musicals, produced dramatic presentations of a number of his novels, and wrote the screenplay for 1953's Moby Dick. His cable television show, The Ray Bradbury Theater, has won numerous cable awards, and five of his novels (Fahrenheight 451, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, It Came from Outer Space, The Illustrated Man, and Something Wicked This Way Comes) have been made into major motion pictures. Bradbury was a consultant for the 1963 World's Fair and helped to design the Spaceship Earth ride at Disney World's EPCOT Center. Additionally, Mr. Bradbury has worked as a consultant on city engineering and rapid transit.