The Reading Warehouse

Ray Bradbury's novel Fahrenheit 451 is an enduring masterwork of twentieth-century American literature--a chilling vision of a dystopian future built on the foundations of ignorance, censorship, and brutal repression. The origins and evolution of Bradbury's darkly magnificent tale are explored in A Pleasure to Burn, a collection of sixteen selected shorter works that prefigure the grand master's landmark novel. With classic, thematically interrelated stories alongside many crucial lesser-known ones--including, at the collection's heart, the novellas "Long after Midnight" and "The Fireman"--A Pleasure to Burn is an indispensable companion to the most powerful work of America's preeminent storyteller and a wondrous confirmation of the inimitable Bradbury's brilliance, magic, and fire.

Ray Bradbury (1920-2012), one of the most popular science fiction writers in the world, wrote more than five hundred short stories, novels, plays, and poems. He won many awards, including the Grand Master Award from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, the O. Henry Memorial Award, the Benjamin Franklin Award, the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement, and the PEN Center USA West Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2000, he was the recipient of the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.