Banned Books
Wikipedia List
- Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark
Twain was banned after publication in 1885 by the Concord Public
Library on grounds of it being "more suited to the slums than to
intelligent, respectable people." More recently its portrayal of race
(including the use of the word nigger as part
of a character's name) has seen many efforts to remove it from school
reading lists in the USA.[3]
ALA_2000
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark
Twain was banned from the children's section of the Brooklyn, New York
public library in 1876, the Denver, Colorado public library in the same
year, and was banned by some libraries in the USA over objections to the
"questionable character" of the main character and racism.[4]
It was banned by the Brazilian Government in 1937 as part of a crackdown on communist
and subversive works.[5]
ALA_2000
- The Age of Reason by Thomas
Paine was banned in the UK
for blasphemy because of its arguments in favour
of Deism and
against Christianity. Booksellers and publishers were
prosecuted for disseminating it. [6]
- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis
Carroll was banned in China in 1931 because the talking animals were considered
blasphemous to Chinese beliefs.
- All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque was banned in Nazi
Germany and was among the titles set for public burning in 1933. [8]
- The Anastasia Krupnik
series by Lois
Lowry is frequently the subject of banning attempts from school
libraries who are concerned that the content is not suitable for children.
[14] ALA_2000
- Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor
was banned for obscenity. [15]
- Animal
Farm by George
Orwell was banned in the USSR for anti-communist
themes, in some Islamic
nations for "religious reasons". It was also banned in the USA for communist
material in its introduction, although the book itself was a vicious
satire on Stalinism. [16]
- Anne Frank: The
Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank has been banned or challenged for
various reasons including being "a real downer." [17]
- Another Country by James Baldwin was banned from some
schools who considered it pornographic.
- The Arabian Nights has been frequently banned in Arab
countries, the most recent being in Egypt in 1989. [22]
- Are You There, God? It's Me,
Margaret by Judy Blume was banned in some schools for its
characters' discussion of menstruation and breast development and its
perceived anti-Christian themes. Judy Blume is also known as "The most banned
author in the U.S.A". [23]
ALA_2000
- Athletic Shorts by Chris
Crutcher was banned from a school in Grand Rapids, Michigan (and the teacher
who taught it dismissed) for using racist language, although the message
of the book itself is resolutely anti-racist. ALA_2000
- The Autobiography of
Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin is one of the ALA's hundred most banned books, for "social
reasons." [28]
- Babbitt by Sinclair
Lewis
- The
Bell Jar by Sylvia
Plath has been challenged for sexual material and condoning an obscene
point of view. [30]
- Beloved by Toni
Morrison has been challenged for its language. [31]
ALA_2000
- Black Boy by Richard Wright was banned in American
schools in the seventies for "obscenity" and "instigating
hatred between the races." [33]
- Black
Like Me by John Howard Griffin was banned for its
portrayal of racial tension. [34]
- Blubber by Judy Blume is often banned for language and scenes
depicting kids being disrespectful to authority figures. Also, the
antagonist is never punished. ALA_2000
- The
Bluest Eye by Toni
Morrison was banned for its explicit sexual content. [38]
ALA_2000
- Brave
New World by Aldous Huxley was banned in Ireland in
1932 for "centering around negative
activity". It's also banned for language. Some saw this book as
anti-family and anti-Christian. ALA_2000
- Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson ALA_2000
- Bumps in the Night by Harry Allard ISBN
0-440-41286-2 ALA_2000
C-D
- Call of the Wild by Jack
London was banned in Italy in 1929 and also in Yugoslavia in 1929.
- Can Such Things
Be? by Ambrose Bierce In 1918, the US War Department
told the American Library Association to remove books considered
"pacifist", "disturbing", and "anti-war",
including Ambrose Bierce's Can Such Things Be? from
camp libraries.
- Candide by Voltaire
1930, U.S. Customs seized Harvard-bound copies of
Candide.
- The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (Banned for risque subject matter.)
- Carrie by Stephen
King for depictions of schoolchildren bullying the title character,
grisly deaths, sexual references, and bad language. ALA_2000
- Catch-22 by Joseph
Heller (banned for sexual content, depictions of defying authority,
profanity, and racially insensitive content)
- The Catcher in the Rye by J.D.
Salinger (Banned for profanity, sexual references, and that it
"undermines morality." Also called blasphemous by some because
of repeated use of the word "goddam".)
ALA_2000
- The Chocolate War by Robert
Cormier (Banned for language, depiction of schoolchildren bullying
other children, and many references to the protagonist pondering about his
sexual orientation.) ALA_2000
- Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau target of successful
banning efforts by Joseph McCarthy
- Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean Auel was banned from the Cascade
Middle School library at Eugene, Oregon
in 1992 for "hardcore graphic sexual content".
- A Clockwork Orange by Anthony
Burgess (Banned from schools for language.)
- Cold Mountain by Charles
Frazier (Banned on political grounds for sympathetic portrayal of
desertion.)
- The Color Purple by Alice
Walker ALA_2000
- The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx
and Friedrich Engels (Banned for political
reasons)
- Confessions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Formerly banned
in the USA
on grounds of obscenity and criticisms of Christianity, especially
Protestantism.)
- Cujo by Stephen
King (Banned for subject matter and language.) ALA_2000
- The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
(Banned in Lebanon
after Catholic leaders deemed it offensive to Christianity. Other reasons:
historical inaccuracies. But now sold in many languages, including
Arabic.)
- The Dangerous Lives of Altar
Boys by Chris Fuhrman
- A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck ALA_2000
- Dead
Souls by Nikolai
Gogol
- The
Dead Zone by Stephen
King ALA_2000 (violence and political reasons)
- The
Decameron by Boccaccio
(Obscenity.)
- Deenie by Judy Blume for references
to female masturbation and menstruation ALA_2000
- The Descent of Man by Charles
Darwin for describing how men originated from primates.
- The
Diviners by Margaret Laurence (banned in some Canadian
schools on religious grounds)
- Doctor Zhivago by Boris
Pasternak (Banned in the USSR for criticisms of the
abuses of power by the Bolsheviks.)
- Dubliners by James
Joyce (Banned in Ireland
for language.)
- Elmer
Gantry by Sinclair
Lewis
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