In Fahrenheit 451, Leonard's character can be considered similar to that of Clarisse McClellan's uncle, who tells of a similar story repeated by her niece to Montag. According to Eller, ' composition in the early months of 1950 predates Bradbury's conception of 'The Fireman,'' the short novella that would later evolve into Fahrenheit 451.

Inspired by this experience, he wrote 'The Pedestrian', which he sent to his New York agent Don Congdon in March 1950. Bradbury answered, 'Well, we're putting one foot in front of the other.' The policemen did not appreciate Ray's joke and became suspicious of Bradbury and his friend for walking in an area where there were no pedestrians. On their walk, a police cruiser pulled up and asked what they were doing. In it, Eller writes that Bradbury's inspiration for the story came when he was walking down Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles with a friend in late 1949. The 60th anniversary of Fahrenheit 451 contains the short piece 'The Story of Fahrenheit 451' by Jonathan R. This has caused speculation that this short story is actually referring to himself, or is in some related way a message to his home town of Waukegan, Illinois. The address of the main character, Leonard Mead, happens to be the address of the house in which Bradbury grew up. There is no reply, and the story concludes. As the car passes through his neighborhood, Mead, locked in the confines of the back seat says, 'That's my house,' as he points to a warm and bright house with all its lights on, unlike all the other houses. The police car, which is revealed to have no occupants, cannot understand why Mead would be out walking for no reason, and so it decides to take him to the Psychiatric Center for Research on Regressive Tendencies. When asked about his profession Mead tells the car that he is a writer, but the car does not understand since no one buys books or magazines in the television-dominated society. It is the only police unit in a city of three million as the purpose of law enforcement has disappeared with everyone watching television at night. 'In ten years of walking by night or day, for thousands of miles, he had never met another person walking, not one in all that time.' On one of his usual walks, he encounters a police car, which is robotic. Mead enjoys walking through the city at night, something which no one else does. In the city the sidewalks have fallen into decay. The story features Leonard Mead, a citizen of a television-centered world in November of A.D. It is included in the collection The Golden Apples of the Sun (1953), but was dropped from later editions of this collection (19). This story was originally published in the Augissue of The Reporter by The Fortnightly Publishing Company. ' The Pedestrian' is a science fiction short story by American writer Ray Bradbury. For other uses, see The Pedestrian (disambiguation).

Ray bradbury the man short story