Fahrenheit 451 or the temperature at which book paper combusts

It was a pleasure to burn...

begins Ray Bradbury's 1953 classic dystopian novel "Fahrenheit 451". The story tells of a future where all critical thought through reading is outlawed and "firemen" are hired to create bonfires of books, which have all been banned.

Reading this novel has been the motivation for compiling this blog on book burning and censorship. The focus of the blog over the next couple of weeks is to look at the history of book burning throughout the ages. Starting with the burning of all history and philosophy books in Ancient China; through massive bonfires in Nazi Germany, where thousands of books written by Jews and Communists were destroyed; and finishing with current burnings of Harry Potter novels in 2001, and Qu'ran burnings in Florida, USA in 2010.

Along the way I will try to lighten the mood by including some "interesting" examples of censorship throughout history. Ironically, Fahrenheit 451, was itself censored by its publisher for thirteen years before Bradbury became aware and demanded they withdraw the censored version and replace it with the original. The censored version included seventy-five modified passages, with words like "hell", "damn" and "abortion" removed. Some schools even banned the book altogether, with parents complaining of bad language, violence and being anti-Christian, due to the bible being one of the many books burned in the novel.

So let's begin, back where it all started in Ancient Times...

References

'Fahrenheit 451 book cover' [Image], SF Site, viewed 30 March 2011,

<http://www.sfsite.com/01b/fh192.htm>.

Bradbury, R 1993, Fahrenheit 451, HarperCollins, London

Greene, B 2007, The mutilation and rebirth of a classic: Fahrenheit 451, viewed 31 March 2011,

<http://newsletter.library.villanova.edu/147>