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Banned Books
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 Literature
Suppressed on Religious Grounds : Banned Books by
Margaret Bald, Ken Wachsberger (Editor), Siobahn Dowd
Foreword by Siobhan Dowd,
Freedom to Write Committee, P.E.N. American Center
Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1831) was criticized
for its anticlericalism and placed on the Catholic Church's Index
of Prohibited Books in 1834, where it remained until 1948.
Censorship of religious and philosophical speculation is as old as
history and as current as today's headlines. Many of the world's
major religious texts, including the Bible, the Talmud, the Koran,
and others, have been suppressed, condemned, or proscribed at some
time. Works of secular literature touching upon religious belief
or reflecting dissenting views have also been suppressed. Banned
Books: Literature Suppressed on Religious Grounds profiles the
censorship of many such essential works of civilization.
 Literature
Suppressed on Sexual Grounds by Dawn B. Sova, David
Greene
When
Tolstoy's The Kreutzer Sonata was banned from distribution
through the mail (except for first class) in 1890, New York street
vendors began selling it from pushcarts carrying large signs
reading Suppressed!
In 1961, the United States Supreme Court pondered whether D. H.
Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover was lewd or literary. In
1969, the novel was required reading in many college literature
courses. Changing sexual mores have moved many formerly forbidden
books out of locked cabinets and into libraries and classrooms. Banned
Books: Literature Suppressed on Sexual Grounds is the first
reference work to examine the issues underlying the suppression of
over one hundred sexually obscene works. -- Foreword
by David Greene, National Campaign for Freedom of Expression.
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Was there a time or place in history in which
censorship did not exist? Was there ever a group of human beings
that was able to survive without censure? These questions precede
and introduce The File Room, and locate censorship as a complex
concept ingrained in our conscious/subconscious reality. Despite
the impossible nature of attempting to define censorship, The File
Room is a project that proposes to address it, providing a tool
for discussing and coming to terms with cultural censorship.
The File Room began as an idea: an abstract
construction that became a prototype, a model of an interactive
and open system. It prompts our thinking and discussion, and
serves as an evolving archive of how the suppression of
information has been orchestrated throughout history in different
contexts, countries and civilizations.
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Essay by Suzanne Fisher Staples,
from Digital Library and Archives
Excerpt:
We're not talking soft porn, racist drek and
subversive witchcraft propaganda. Among the most-banned books are
some of the best-loved modern classics. In addition to The
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a list of the ten
most-challenged titles for 1994 compiled by the American Library
Association includes Forever by Judy Blume, the Newbery
Award-winning Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson, The
Chocolate War by Robert Cormier, Scary Stories To Tell in
the Dark, More Scary Stories, and Scary Stories 3 by
Alvin Schwartz, and The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
(ALA).
At the head of the list was Daddy's Roommate
by Michael Willhoite, about a day in the life of a boy whose
divorced father is in a monogamous homosexual relationship. One
challenger in Mesa, Arizona, said the book "is vile, sick and
goes against every law and constitution." The passion evident
in this parent's complaint typifies the language of formal book
challenges filed with schools and public libraries all over the
country.
But by far the most common type of censorship
involves books quietly disappearing from libraries. Sometimes a
parent who objects to a book but doesn't want to go through a
formal challenge just slips it off the shelf. Frequently a
librarian who may fear for her job removes a book that has become
controversial. Because of the nature of "stealth
censorship," it is difficult to document and impossible to
quantify.
These quiet book bannings affect every aspect of
the book world...
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This site hosts a list of groups and individuals
in the forefront of recent attacks on free expression and the
arts.
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Censorship Links
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Usenet Groups on Censorship, Freedom of Speech
and Civil Liberties
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This bibliographical
list, as a part of Banned Books Week, is from the Office for Intellectual Freedom of the American
Library Association.
Banned Books Week celebrates the freedom to
choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that
opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and
stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those
unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them.
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