Most of the recent headlines about Ray Bradbury’s book, Farenheit 451, being made available as an e-book hint or highlight the fact that Bradbury is a longstanding opponent to anything which challenges the primacy of the printed word. From the Nov. 30, 2011 BBC news item, Fahrenheit 451 becomes e-book despite author’s feelings,

As late as last year, Mr Bradbury remained firmly opposed to the idea of his book appearing as a digital title.

“I was approached three times during the last year by internet companies wanting to put my books on an electronic reading device,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 2010.

“I said to Yahoo: ‘Prick up your ears and go to hell.'”

He also complained about the spread of modern technology.

“We have too many cellphones. We’ve got too many internets. We have got to get rid of those machines. We have too many machines now,” he said.

However, Mr Bradbury’s agent said the deal had become unavoidable.

“We explained the situation to him that a new contract wouldn’t be possible without e-book rights,” Michael Congdon said.

“He understood and gave us the right to go ahead.”

Mike Masnick in his Nov. 29, 2011 posting on Techdirt notes this about the deal,

Of course, if Bradbury is worried that people are going to leave behind his precious paper (more on that in a minute), perhaps his publishers are saving him… by pricing the ebook at a ridiculous $9.99. This is for a book that you can buy in a paper copy used for a penny and new for $2.84. And the publisher thinks $9.99 for a version that doesn’t require materials, packaging or shipping should be many times the cost?

Masnick goes on to note that Farenheit 451 was really a critique of the new media of the day, television.