From the front and back flaps:
Fahrenheit 451 is the temperature at which book paper burns. Fahrenheit 451 - published originally in 1953 and probably Ray Bradbury's most famous work - is a short novel set in the (perhaps near) future when "firemen" burn books forbidden by the totalitarian "brave new world" regime. The hero - as Mr. Bradbury writes in his new Introduction - is "a book burner who suddenly discovers that books are flesh and blood ideas and cry out, silently, when put to the torch." Today when libraries are once more burning across the world, Fahrenheit 451 is a work of even greater impact and timeliness.
Included in this re-publication are two of Mr. Bradbury's finest stories, "And the Rock Cried Out" and "The Playground." Fahrenheit 451 itself has, of course, been recently made into a film by Francois Truffaut.