First Edition Friday AND Banned Books Week: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
I have spoken about this wonderful book earlier in the year ... but it's a great read, and it's a banned book , so I very am happy to talk about it again!
The theme at the heart of this book is censorship - which makes its banning all the more ironic!
It has been challenged and banned in schools across the US several times. The most recent was an attempt in 2006 when during Banned Book Week (!) a student was assigned 451 to read. The Student got only a few pages in, was disgusted by the language and the depiction of the burning of the bible, so her and her parents then tried to ban the book from the curriculum.
However there is something even more ironic than banning a book about censorship DURING Banned Books Week.
If the student had continued reading, they would have seen that the reason the protagonist begins to question his life of book burning is becasue he finds, steals and reads the bible - which ends up changing his life....
We have several different First Edition copies of Fahrenheit 451 available:
In order pictured:
The 1953 Ballantine Books paperback. This is the true first edition and came out earlier than the hardcovers. NZD$150.00
The 1954 Hart-Davies edition in its dust wrapper. I believe this is the UK first edition. NZD$200.00
We do have with several other copies available on our online catalogue
