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I think today’s list doesn’t require too much introduction on my part – it’s pretty self-explanatory! Feel free to add your favorite banned books in the comments.
10 Classic Books That Have Been Banned
1. The Call of the Wild by Jack London was banned in Yugoslavia and Italy and was burned by Nazis.
2. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck was banned in many places across the U.S., but was particularly banned in California because the book depicted the state badly.
3. The Lorax by Dr. Seuss has been banned across the U.S. for it’s allegorical political commentary.
4. Ulysses by James Joyce was banned for sexual content. The ban was overturned in a court case called the United States vs. One Book Called Ulysses.
5. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque was banned in Nazi Germany for insulting the Wehrmacht.
6. Animal Farm by George Orwell was delayed in the U.K. because of its anti-Stalin theme. It was confiscated in Germany by Allied troops, banned in Yugoslavia in 1946, banned in Kenya in 1991 and banned in the United Arab Emirates in 2002.
7. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner was banned in Kentucky because it was “anti-Christian” and contained bad language.
8. Black Beauty by Anna Sewell was banned in South Africa in 1955 for using the world “Black” in the title.
9. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger was banned in lots of places across the U.S. because the character exhibited “inappropriate” behavior, plus bad language and sexual content.
10. The Giver by Lois Lowry was banned in a few states including California and Kentucky for addressing issues such as euthanasia.
Do you know when/where in Kentucky “As I Lay Dying” was banned? When I went to high school in KY, we studied it, and I go to a KY university where I will study it again this fall.
posted by Jenny on 5-30-2008 at 2:46 pm
Fahrenheit 451 has been banned in a few schools. Bradbury has also discussed it having been censored as well.
posted by Sawicki on 5-30-2008 at 3:01 pm
The Giver is a beautiful book. I read it first in middle school and still have a copy on my shelf.
posted by adrienne on 5-30-2008 at 3:09 pm
Have to agree with Jenny. I remember “As I lay Dying” as required reading in my rural Kentucky high school. That was almost 30 yrs. ago. But each county runs its school system as it seems fit, so it wouldn’t surprise me that some “yahoo” school boards may have banned it.
posted by Jack on 5-30-2008 at 3:18 pm
Is Harry Potter considered a classic yet?
posted by andy on 5-30-2008 at 3:22 pm
hmmm. i’ve read several of those.
the “Ulysses” ban was overturned, alledgedly (sp?), by a judge who said, in essence: “If you can find the obscenities in this book, you probably deserve to read them.”
posted by the creature on 5-30-2008 at 3:24 pm
Oh, no question about it: my favorite banned book is “Where’s Waldo”. It’s #88 on the ALA’s list of most challenged books, thanks to a possibly nude sunbather. (Though the figures are so small- who can tell?)
posted by AndyB on 5-30-2008 at 3:25 pm
I absolutely adore The Giver. I think it’s impecably written and is one of the reasons I’m an avid reader today.
I think Harry Potter’s been banned hasn’t it?
Also Uncle Tom’s Cabin I believe was banned at some point for the racial themes.
posted by Tricia on 5-30-2008 at 4:35 pm
Sawicki beat me to my favorite.
I especially love the Kansas school district that distributed blacked out copies of one of the world’s best anti-censorship novels.
I can only hope that some of the students understood the irony.
posted by EMStoveken on 5-30-2008 at 4:35 pm
Wow, The Lorax has been banned? Pretty soon they’ll be banning Where’s Waldo…
*checks AndyB’s post* Oh, wait a second…
People are strange. That’s all I can say.
posted by Allison on 5-30-2008 at 4:41 pm
As I Lay Dying:
Banned in the Graves County School District in Mayfield, KY (1986) because it contained “offensive and obscene passages referring to abortion and used God’s name in vain.” The decision was reversed a week later after intense pressure from the ACLU and considerable negative publicity. Challenged as a required reading assignment in an advanced English class of Pulaski County High School in Somerset, KY (1987) because the book contains “profanity and a segment about masturbation.” Banned at Central High School in Louisville, KY (1994) temporarily because the book uses profanity and questions the existence of God. (credit to robert doyle)
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What about Adventures of Huckleberry Finn? or Slaughterhouse Five?
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My local library celebrates Banned Book Week every year. They set up a huge display right by the check out and put dozens of banned books right out in the open. Its like a big F U to the people who try to tell what you can and can’t read.
posted by Florida on 5-30-2008 at 4:48 pm
What, no mention of “Heather Has Two Mommies”?
Per Wikipedia: “The American Library Association ranked it the 11th most frequently banned book in the United States in the 1990s”.
Oh, I see. It was #11, just missed the top ten.
posted by Jeff on 5-30-2008 at 4:48 pm
Another missing book is the Bible. It is so controversial that it can not be seen on a teacher’s desk, read during student reading time, read out loud, shared with friends, it is banned from being given away, it must never be cited, and at times requires parental permission to check out.
Believe the book or not, it is a classic in Western literature.
posted by Keith on 5-30-2008 at 6:21 pm
My High School (Issaquah High School) was one of the first in the nation to ban Catcher in the Rye… It is actually a question in the original Trivial Pursuit Game!
Since then it has been reinstated and I had the pleasure of reading it my Sophomore year.
posted by Liz on 5-30-2008 at 6:51 pm
Thanks Florida. It’s weird that Central High School would ban it for questioning the existence of God, because that’s a public high school. I went to a Catholic high school and it was required reading for AP English.
posted by Jenny on 5-30-2008 at 7:14 pm
Some of the most baffling books that have been banned are the dictionary, Garfield books, Cujo, Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret, A Light in the Attic, and The Witches by Roald Dahl.
posted by elih on 5-30-2008 at 7:27 pm
I’m trying to think of why Nazis would burn Call of The Wild. I read it freshmen year of high school and can’t see what they had a problem with. but then they were Nazis and who know why they did alot of stuff.
Along the line of “Heather has Two Mommies” an elementary school in North Carolina a few years back banned a book about two princes that fell in love.
posted by Claire on 5-30-2008 at 7:33 pm
“Tropic of Cancer” by Henry Miller.
posted by Rich on 5-30-2008 at 10:48 pm
Yeah, Harry Potter doesn’t count as a classic just yet, folks. It’s a very popular book, no doubt, but some of the most popular authors of 100 plus years ago are never read or remembered today, and some of the least popular authors of yesteryear (Herman Melville, for example) are considered the classics. So we’ll have to see how Potter deals with the test of time.
posted by Julia on 5-31-2008 at 6:47 am
Re: Keith’s post
Not necessarily. I read the Bible in (public) high school. Not as a religious work, but as a good piece of literature and history. Therefore, we only read the Pentateuch (the first five books, also known to Jews as the Torah). We discussed the quality of the writing, and its value as a historical text. Not surprisingly, we were to bring in our own Bibles. Besides my philosophy class, it was my favorite English class, and it was not an elective.
posted by Amy on 5-31-2008 at 8:27 am
seems to me one of the first to be banned for sexual reasons was “God’s Little” by Erskine Caldwell. I remember reading it as a young boy and thought it was great.
posted by olal on 5-31-2008 at 8:41 am
hey my comment was not posted, not once nor twice as you stated
posted by olal on 5-31-2008 at 8:45 am
The Bible is absolutely not forbidden in schools, as one post suggests. Students are free to read it in school, discuss it in school, write about it in their school papers, cite it as a reference when appropriate, etc. There seems to be a lot of misconception about “separation of church and state.” Many people seem to believe that religion is not allowed in school AT ALL. All “separation of church and state” means is that schools and teachers (who operate as agents of the state) must not espouse a particular religious belief, or appear to be doing so. Students are free to practice any religion they choose and discuss their religious beliefs in appropriate ways and at appropriate times during school.
posted by Lisa on 5-31-2008 at 9:01 am
My kids are in middle school in a Catholic School in Colorado. They have read The Giver, Call of the Wild, and Fahrenheit 451, and Killer Angels. This summer they are reading Robinson Crusoe, Of Mice and Men, and Fallen Angels. We also read the Bible at school. Oh, rebel on!
posted by Angie on 5-31-2008 at 9:43 am
I read The Catcher in the Rye as a high school sophomore in Mississippi in the early 90’s. My English teacher had all her honors classes write a paper entitled “The Significance of the ‘F’-word in The Catcher in the Rye“. Amazingly she got away with this for well over a decade til a parent of a student two classes behind mine complained and the school district forced her to stop having students write on the topic (before that students could opt out of writing on it if their parent’s objected).
And Lisa, whether teachers can be openly religious in public schools is actually not clearly defined in most jurisdictions. Here in Georgia a teacher cannot engage in active proselytization but passive evidence of faith is not outright prohibited.
posted by Tom on 5-31-2008 at 4:39 pm
The Great Gatsby!
posted by Reese on 5-31-2008 at 10:22 pm
The Giver was banned in California? Who knew? We read it here in elementary school. And High School.
I’m surprised the Lorax was banned and not the Butter Battle Book.
posted by Leah on 6-1-2008 at 10:09 am
Wasn’t Roots banned?
posted by Miss Nae on 6-1-2008 at 11:35 pm
Flowers for Algernon! By far one of the greatest books I have ever read for school. Also, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Native Son, and Slaughterhouse Five. My theme for my AP English class as a junior, was on censorship, and I’m so glad!
posted by Ashliegh on 6-2-2008 at 10:18 am
I had no idea those books had been banned. I read more than half of those in high school, less than ten years ago.
posted by Rosie on 6-2-2008 at 12:42 pm