Happy Banned Books Week!
In celebration of this important week, here are a few tidbits and fun facts about who and why we attempt to limit the free speech of the writers in our country…
Over the past eight years, here’s WHY 3,736 works were challenged:
- 1,225 challenges due to “sexually explicit” material
- 1,008 challenges due to “offensive language”
- 720 challenges due to material deemed “unsuited to age group”
- 458 challenges due to “violence”
- 269 challenges due to “homosexuality”
- 103 materials were challenged because they were “anti-family”
- 233 were challenged because of their “religious viewpoints”
Here’s WHERE the challenges occurred…
- 1,176 of these challenges (approximately 31%) were in classrooms
- 37% were in school libraries
- 24% (or 909) took place in public libraries
- Fewer than 75 challenges to college classes
- only 36 to academic libraries.
- The majority of challenges were initiated by parents (almost exactly 51%), while patrons and administrators followed behind (10% and 8% respectively).
Thank you to the ALA site for the above information (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/bannedbooksweek/index.cfm)
Find out if your favorite book has been banned or challenged by exploring the following all-time list:
1. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
2. The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
3. The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck
4. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
5. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
6. Ulysses, by James Joyce
7. Beloved, by Toni Morrison
8. The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
9. 1984, by George Orwell
11. Lolita, by Vladmir Nabokov
12. Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
15. Catch-22, by Joseph Heller
16. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
17. Animal Farm, by George Orwell
18. The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway
19. As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner
20. A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway
23. Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston
24. Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison
25. Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison
26. Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
27. Native Son, by Richard Wright
28. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey
29. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
30. For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway
33. The Call of the Wild, by Jack London
36. Go Tell it on the Mountain, by James Baldwin
38. All the King’s Men, by Robert Penn Warren
40. The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien
45. The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair
48. Lady Chatterley’s Lover, by D.H. Lawrence
49. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess
50. The Awakening, by Kate Chopin
53. In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote
55. The Satanic Verses, by Salman Rushdie
57. Sophie’s Choice, by William Styron
64. Sons and Lovers, by D.H. Lawrence
66. Cat’s Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
67. A Separate Peace, by John Knowles
73. Naked Lunch, by William S. Burroughs
74. Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh
75. Women in Love, by D.H. Lawrence
80. The Naked and the Dead, by Norman Mailer
84. Tropic of Cancer, by Henry Miller
88. An American Tragedy, by Theodore Dreiser
97. Rabbit, Run, by John Updike
Any surprises?
Find out why the above were challenged: http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/challengedclassics/reasonsbanned/index.cfm
Here’s the latest batch of authors to receive the distinction – (2008): Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson, Philip Pullman, Lauren Myracle, Jim Pipe, Alvin Schwartz, Chris Crutcher, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, Rudolfo Anaya, Stephen Chbosky, Cecily Von Ziegesar
Last, here’s a run-down of other posts I’ve published regarding censorship…
- Top 10 Censored Books
- Nelson DeMille’s reverse censorship
- Time magazine’s Censorship in Modern Times
- Librarians censoring books… or not!
So, how are you celebrating Banned Books Week? 
Kristen,
Thanks for the extensive information on banned books–some of our best works and most distinguished authors have held this “banned” distinction! It’s a good exercise in thinking and great review for a former school librarian/media specialist. Happy Banned Books Week to you!
Linda
This has been my passion for many many years and as such I am now able to help discuss banned books with others. My honor society is even hosting a banned book club! please look into our blog, and spread the word about our fight against censorship!
Just FYI . . . only 46 of the books on this list were banned or challenged. Please read the fine print at: http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/challengedclassics/index.cfm
Only those books in bold on that page were banned/challenged, not every book on the list of 100 top books of the 20th century (which is what you have published here).
What I need to know for a research paper is the true reason ‘The Portrait Of A Lady’ was banned, even my AP 12 teacher doesn’t know. If someone could email me the reason i would really appreciate it. I have to write a thesis on it.
It would be very helpful, I have a seven to ten page paper due on the book.
Hi Erin — I taught AP English 12 for many years, and I have no idea either! Hopefully you will get some helpful resources soon!
Erin, as I indicated in my comment above, not every book on the top 100 list was banned or challenged. Many websites, including this one, published the full list without the BOLD indication of which books were banned or challenged. If you look at the current version of the list at the ala site, http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/challengedclassics/index.cfm
you will see that Portrait of a Lady (#35) is not listed as one of the banned or challenged classics.
This example also illustrates the danger of basing your research paper on the internet . . .
Good luck!!
Hi Dewluca — The link you provided did not indicate the titles in bold, but I did a bit more research (online
) and found the correct list… I can see why the wrong list has been published on a number of sites, though — quite misleading…! I have updated the above list to reflect only those titles that may have been challenged or banned now!
I think the ALA finally realized that people were copying and pasting the list without the explanation, so they got rid of the bold and erased all the non-banned or challenged items. (I printed the page during Banned Books Week 2010 and at that time it still had the full 100 with the banned ones in bold.) Trust me, you aren’t the only one who missed the fine print! Just glad to get it cleared up . . . I was so tired of reading that all 100 of those books had been banned . . . It’s hard enough just trying to read all the banned ones
Thanks for all the other fun book resources!