Ray Douglas Bradbury was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery, and realistic fiction.
Bradbury in 1959
Bradbury as a senior in high school, 1938
Bradbury's "Undersea Guardians" was the cover story for the December 1944 issue of Amazing Stories.
Bradbury in 2009
Fahrenheit 451 is a 1953 dystopian novel by American writer Ray Bradbury. It presents a future American society where books have been outlawed and "firemen" burn any that are found. The novel follows in the viewpoint of Guy Montag, a fireman who soon becomes disillusioned with his role of censoring literature and destroying knowledge, eventually quitting his job and committing himself to the preservation of literary and cultural writings.
First edition cover (clothbound)
The Nazi book burnings horrified Ray Bradbury and inspired him to write Fahrenheit 451
A protester against the Bhagavad Gita trial in Russia showing a quote from the novel: "– Do you ever read any of the books you burn? – That's against the law".