Banned Books
Banned Books Week: September 24 – October 1, 2011
The American Library Association holds an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. Banned Books Week highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States. Come see our display and check out a banned book!
The list of books banned by American schools and libraries includes many of the classics. Here’s a list of a few favorites. Many are over 50 years old!
Too Political:
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1852
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, 1928
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, 1939
For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway, 1940
Animal Farm by George Orwell, 1945
Doctor Zhivago by Brosi Pasternak, 1957
Too Much Sex:
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, 1856
Ulysses by James Joyce, 1922
Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.h. Lawrence, 1928
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, 1969
Jaws by Peter Benchley, 1974
The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy, 1986
Too Socially Offensive:
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin, 1791
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1850
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, 1936
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, 1947
A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley, 1991
Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling, 1997-2007
