Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451 (Ballantine Books, 1953) by Ray Bradbury is a dystopian novel that presents a future American society in which the masses are hedonistic and critical thought through reading is outlawed. Written in the early years of the Cold War, the novel is a critique of what Bradbury saw as issues in American society of the era. Bradbury combined two of his early short stories, "The Pedestrian" and  "Bright Phoenix," into The Fireman, a novella published in the February 1951 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction. Bradbury's publisher at Ballantine Books then suggested that he expand the work to make into a novel—Fahrenheit 451.

Fahrenheit 451 was first published as a novel by Ballantine Books in New York in 1953. First edition copies signed by Bradbury sell for $15,000-$18,000. A limited-edition was released by the publisher in late 1953 of 200 signed copies that were bound in asbestos (to make them fireproof). 

The first British edition of Fahrenheit 451 was published by Rupert Hart Davis in London in 1954 and sells for $1,500 to $3,500.