How Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 Helped Hugh Hefner Start Playboy
RAY BRADBURY:
I needed some extra income because my family was growing. I tried to sell it to various magazines who were afraid of the subject matter. Because Joseph McCarthy was making such a rumpus.
A young editor came to me. He was looking for material. He didn't have much money. He was going to start a new magazine. This is in the autumn of 1953. He says, "Will you sell me something inexpensively?" I said, yes, I have Fahrenheit 451.
HUGH HEFNER:
A story about book burning in the future seemed so perfect for its time and so perfect for the magazine that I was planning on publishing.
RAY BRADBURY:
He said, I have $400. Can I buy it from you? I said, yes, you can. So he paid me $400, and Fahrenheit 451 appeared in the first, second, and third issues of Playboy.
So men, I want a little applause here. It's a magazine for the needy, huh? So I was off and running with Playboy. I sold them 32 short stories all together. But that was a great beginning for Hugh Hefner and a great one for myself.
INTERVIEWER (GEOFF BOUCHER):
Why do you think the book endures to this day and echoes so strongly?
HUGH HEFNER:
Because I do think that it speaks to the very nature of repression and freedom and democracy. And the title itself, the temperature at which books burn, was inspired and of its time and of every time.
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