Fahrenheit 451 by Bradbury, Ray - 1953

NY: Ballantine Books, 1953. First edition. One of a likely 50 copies bound in red cloth, stamped in gold, intended for Bradbury's personal use. Card inscribed by the author laid in. Fahrenheit 451-the temperature at which paper burns-has long been regarded as a high point of the science fiction genre. Written in the peak of McCarthyism, it grapples with the consequences of censorship and the destruction of knowledge through a dystopian future in which books have been outlawed and "firemen" burn any they find. Ironically, the novel has faced repeated attempts to censor it by school boards and parents, and even the release of expurgated editions by Ballantine Books. This first edition includes two of Bradbury's short stories, The Playground and And the Rock Cried Out, which are absent in later printings. Minor soiling to lower board and head of text block, else a fine copy. Housed in custom clamshell box in red cloth with black leather spine label. (Barron 3-31; Pringle 8; Internet Speculative Fiction Database #262160).