The idea began with Bradbury's short story "Bright Phoenix," written in 1947 but first published in the "Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction" in 1963. The original short story was reworked into the novella, "The Fireman", and published in the February 1951 issue of "Galaxy Science Fiction". The novel was also serialized in the March, April, and May 1954 issues of "Playboy" magazine. Bradbury wrote the entire novel on a pay typewriter in the basement of UCLA's Powell library. His original idea in writing "Fahrenheit 451" was to show his great love for books and libraries. He has often referred to Montag as an allusion to himself.
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