Books and Manuscripts

First serialized appearance of Ray Bradbury's classic dystopian novel "Fahrenheit 451"

"PLAYBOY doesn't usually print continued stories, but this is too good to cut to a single issue. FAHRENHEIT 451 will become, we believe, a modern science fiction classic. It is more than fantasy--it is a frightening prediction of a future world we are creating NOW."

Chicago: HMH Publishing Co., Inc., March-May, 1954, Vol. 1, Nos. 4, 5, and 6. In three volumes. 4to. Edited by Hugh Hefner, Ray Russell, and Arthur Paul. Featuring the first serialized printing of Ray Bradbury's dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451, in three parts. Original illustrated stiff wrappers, very lightly worn, scattered light soiling, "1954" added in pen on letter "P" on front cover of May issue. A near-fine set.

Through this serialization Ray Bradbury's novel introduced a new audience to the genre of science fiction and helped ensure that it defied its genre restrictions to become a classic of American literature. Even though the novel was first published by Ballantine the previous October (1953), Playboy founder Hugh Hefner believed the story's tale of the perils of censorship was crucial for First Amendment rights and the continued publication of his then-controversial magazine. As Bradbury writes in the introduction to a reprint of Fahrenheit 451 in 2003: "By this time we were deeply in the McCarthy period. McCarthy had bullied the Army into removing some 'tainted' books from the overseas libraries. Former General, now President, Eisenhower, one of the few brave ones that year, ordered the books put back on shelves. Meanwhile, our search for a magazine publisher to print portions of Fahrenheit 451 came to a dead end. No one wanted to take a chance on a novel about past, present or future censorship. It was then that the second great new thing occurred. A young Chicago editor, minus cash but full of future visions, saw my manuscript and bought it for four hundred and fifty dollars, all he could afford, to be published in...his about-to-be-born magazine. The young man was Hugh Hefner. The magazine was Playboy, which arrived during the winter of 1953-54 to shock and improve the world. The rest is history. (p. 19, Fahrenheit 451, New York, 2003). Playboy's publication of the novel helped the fledgling magazine burnish its reputation as a source for serious literature and journalism, and over the years they would go on to publish 30 more works by Bradbury.