Banned Books Week: September 22 – 28, 2013
Banned Books Week is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. Typically held during the last week of September, it highlights the value of free and open access to information. Banned Books Week brings together the entire book community –- librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers of all types –- in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular.
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
