After Montag successfully flees the dystopian city, he travels down the river and into the wilderness, where he meets and joins a group of traveling intellectuals. Granger is the leader of the group of hobo intellectuals, who possess significant knowledge and remember important pieces of literature in hopes of one day building a literate society after the dystopian nation is destroyed.
When Granger asks Montag what he has to offer, Montag responds by saying that he can only remember part of the Book of Ecclesiastes and a little bit of Revelation. Granger then assures Montag that he will eventually be able to recall the books he's read verbatim because they have developed a method that helps them remember any book in its entirety. Granger also mentions to Montag that each of the traveling intellectuals has a photographic memory and that Simmons's method for developing a clear memory will work. By the end of the novel, Montag walks towards the decimated dystopian city and begins to remember and recite the books of Ecclesiastes and Revelation.
In Fahrenheit 451, Granger and the other professors preserve books by memorizing them. Granger explains that they used to read the books and burn them or put them onto microfilm, but neither of these methods worked very well. Instead, they decided to learn every word.
Each man in the group has memorized a single book or group of books by a single author. Granger, for instance, has memorized Plato's Republic. When Montag joins the group, his contribution is the biblical Book of Ecclesiastes.
By memorizing the books, Granger and his men have successfully preserved the content of lost books—books outlawed by the government and burned by firemen. When it comes time to rebuild society, they will recite their chosen book, transferring its contents to the next generation.
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