Did Bradbury State: “There are worse crimes than burning books. For example, don’t read them?

The American science fiction writer is often credited with saying how harmful it is not to read. We have verified the correctness of this attribution.

This quote is usually cited as an excerpt from Bradbury’s most famous novel, the dystopia Fahrenheit 451, in which reading is prohibited, and any books found in people’s possessions are subject to burning. It is in the form of an excerpt from this work that the phrase is presented on numerous websites with quotes, including “Quotes.info", Socratify.net, "Pearls of Thought" And "Quotes and aphorisms", as well as in collections of Bradbury’s statements on the publisher’s website "Eksmo" and portal "InoSMI". Phrase about true crimes against books lead and users of the popular service with literary recommendations and reviews LiveLib. In 2012, RIA Novosti entitled note about Bradbury with the quote “There are crimes worse than burning books. For example, don’t read them.” It is readily used by users of social networks, including "VKontakte", Twitter, Facebook And Instagram.

Let's start with the fact that this quote is probably associated with the novel Fahrenheit 451 solely because in the plot the characters burn books. Otherwise, it is very difficult to explain why the phrase being checked is missing, as in original English text, and in translation into Russian.

Bradbury made somewhat similar (but by no means identical) statements in interviews at least twice. Thus, in 1993, in a conversation with a correspondent for The Seattle Times, the writer noted: “There is no need to burn books to destroy a culture. Just make people stop reading them." In another interview of his, published seven years later, Bradbury argued: “There is no point in burning books if no one reads them.” At the same time, in 2010, a Time correspondent in a conversation with a science fiction writer asked: “You once said that there are crimes worse than burning books, and one of them is not reading them. Why don’t people read as much as they used to?” Bradbury did not comment on whether the words about crimes against books really belonged to him, and immediately moved on to answering his interlocutor’s question.

English-speaking Internet users often attribute the verifiable statement to the poet Joseph Brodsky, who in 1972 emigrated from the Soviet Union to the USA, where he began teaching and writing essays in English. In 1991, the Library of Congress awarded Brodsky the honorary position of Poet Laureate of the United States. The holder of this status, which is valid for two years, is responsible for included advising the library on poetry issues and holding public lectures, and he may also propose projects related to the support of literature in the United States or the preservation of the poetic legacy of his predecessors.

How approved In the fourth edition of the collection Oxford Essential Quotations, compiled by the University of Oxford, it was during the press conference after being awarded the status of poet laureate that Brodsky uttered the verifiable phrase about burning books. Literally, according to the publication, it sounded like this: “There are crimes worse than burning books. One of them is not to read them.” This press conference actually took place on May 17, 1991, in the archives of the Library of Congress even preserved photograph of Brodsky during a conversation with journalists. Unfortunately, we were unable to find a transcript of that conversation.

At the same time, Brodsky used very similar rhetorical turns at least twice. For example, on October 2, 1991, the poet opened the next literary season at the Library of Congress and in his lecture noted: “I don’t know, really, which is worse: burning books or not reading them; I think, however, that publishing poetry in symbolic editions is something intermediate between both” (translation Dmitry Chekalov).

In 1987 Brodsky received Nobel Prize in Literature. In his Nobel lecture, the laureate reasoned: “There cannot be laws that protect us from ourselves; not a single criminal code provides for punishment for crimes against literature. And among these crimes, the most serious is not the persecution of authors, not censorship restrictions and the like, not the burning of books. There is a more serious crime - neglecting books, not reading them." 

Thus the quote “There are crimes worse than burning books. For example, don’t read them” is definitely not taken from the novel “Fahrenheit 451” and, with a high degree of probability, is not connected with Ray Bradbury in principle. Similar phrases are found in his interviews; they were attributed to the science fiction writer at least once by the correspondent directly during the conversation, but there is no strict confirmation of such an attribution. It is much more likely that the authorship of the phrase belongs to Joseph Brodsky. Its use is recorded in authoritative sources; the poet also expressed an identical thought at least twice in different formulations.

Incorrect quote attribution

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. R. Bradbury. Fahrenheit 451
2. The Seattle Times. Bradbury Still Believes In Heat Of `Fahrenheit 451'
3. I. Brodsky. An Immodest Proposal (lecture given at the Library of Congress in October 1991)
4. I. Brodsky. Nobel lecture