{"id":82329,"date":"2015-10-01T16:39:57","date_gmt":"2015-10-01T21:39:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=82329"},"modified":"2015-10-01T16:42:22","modified_gmt":"2015-10-01T21:42:22","slug":"banned-eight-lesser-known-books-banned-in-the-united-states","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=82329","title":{"rendered":"BANNED! 8 Lesser-known Books Banned in the United States"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Ashley Mancill
\npreviously published 10\/6\/14<\/em><\/p>\n

BANNED! 8 Lesser-known Books Banned in the United States<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"ashleymancill\"<\/a>Most of us have read or at least know some of the works that are on the American Library\u00a0Association\u2019s lists<\/a> of banned and challenged books. From literary masterpieces, to edgy young\u00a0adult fiction, to beloved tales and new classics in children\u2019s literature, these titles and countless\u00a0others have been challenged and, in some cases, banned in an attempt to restrict access to the\u00a0dangerous ideas, language, and content that lie therein.<\/p>\n

Banned Books week, which runs from September 21 to September 27 this year, raises\u00a0awareness about censorship and celebrates intellectual freedom\u2014a core value of librarianship.\u00a0To honor the occasion, I\u2019ve compiled a short list of lesser-known banned books that have been\u00a0pulled from library shelves at one time or other in the US.<\/p>\n

It Stops With Me: Memoir of a Canuck Girl<\/em> by Charleen Touchette<\/strong><\/p>\n

The memoir was removed from the Woonsocket Harris Public Library in 2005 following a\u00a0challenge by the author\u2019s father. Leon Botstein, the president of Bard College, supported the\u00a0book\u2019s removal, stating that domestic violence should remain a private matter<\/a>. It Stops With\u00a0Me<\/em> was banned for several months pending a decision from the library\u2019s board of trustees but\u00a0ultimately found its way back on the library shelf.<\/p>\n

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz<\/em> by L. Frank Baum<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz<\/em> and Baum\u2019s other Oz books were frequently challenged by\u00a0librarians and teachers in the 1930s who felt that the children\u2019s series lacked literary merit\u00a0and were simply depraved<\/a>. In the late 1950s, the director of the Detroit public library system\u00a0denounced The Wonderful Wizard of Oz<\/em> for promoting \u201cnegativism<\/a>“, and the book was kept off\u00a0the libraries\u2019 shelves for forty-five years.<\/p>\n

The Lord of the Rings<\/em> by J.R.R. Tolkien<\/strong><\/p>\n

J.R.R. Tolkien\u2019s epic trilogy was banned in various school systems<\/a> and even burned in\u00a0Alamogordo<\/a>, New Mexico, on grounds that the books promoted magic and were satanic.<\/p>\n

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich<\/em> by Alexander Solzhenitsyn\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is the first work by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, a Russian mathematics teacher and prison\u00a0camp survivor. The novella follows Ivan Denisovich Shukov over the course of a day during his\u00a0internment at a Russian gulag. The book was banned for its horrific portrayal of totalitarianism\u00a0and the Soviet regime, and the author was exiled. It was removed from the Milton High School\u00a0library in 1976 for \u201cobjectionable language<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

America<\/em> by Jon Stewart<\/strong><\/p>\n

The ban on Stewart\u2019s satirical textbook from two Mississippi libraries in the Jackson-George\u00a0Regional Library System lasted only a day. The library board banned the book for its nude\u00a0depictions<\/a> of the Supreme Court justices. After immense criticism from patrons and unwanted\u00a0attention from others outside of the community, the board reversed its decision, and the book\u00a0was once again allowed to circulate in all eight of the system\u2019s libraries. A few months earlier,\u00a0Wal-Mart cancelled its order for the book after learning about the images and declined to carry\u00a0the item in stores, stating it felt customers \u201cmay not be comfortable with that image<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (Fanny Hill)<\/strong><\/em> by John Cleland<\/strong><\/p>\n

Unless you studied English literature in college, are a literary critic, or enjoy reading eighteenth-century erotica, you have probably never heard of this book. But John Cleland\u2019s Memoirs of\u00a0a Woman of Pleasure<\/em> (commonly called Fanny Hill<\/em>) is so sexually explicit that the author was\u00a0charged and arrested for obscenity shortly after his release from debtor\u2019s prision. Both the\u00a0original and edited versions were banned in the United States in 1821<\/a>. In 1966, the Supreme\u00a0Court ruled that the novel didn\u2019t meet the standard for obscenity and was protected under the\u00a0First Amendment, lifting the ban on its publication and circulation.<\/p>\n

Whale Talk<\/em> by Chris Crutcher<\/strong><\/p>\n

A parent of a student at Ardmore High School in Athens, Alabama, filed a complaint with the\u00a0Limestone County School Board after discovering that Crutcher\u2019s book contained racial slurs\u00a0and profanity. Board members voted<\/a> the book be removed despite a recommendation from\u00a0the superintendent that it be retained. Parents in Georgetown, South Carolina, raised similar\u00a0concerns over the book, and it was ultimately removed<\/a> from the school district\u2019s reading\u00a0list. The author defended his use of profanity, claiming it \u201cis important to the text and to the\u00a0honesty of the characters and the lessons learned at the book\u2019s conclusion.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lorax<\/em> by Dr. Seuss<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some logging families in the Pacific Northwest didn\u2019t appreciate the Lorax speaking for the\u00a0Truffula trees. The popular Dr. Seuss book was reportedly banned<\/a> by schools and libraries in\u00a0areas where foresting was the primary industry. The book was challenged in 1989 in Laytonville,\u00a0California, after the parents of a second grader complained<\/a> to the school board that the book\u00a0negatively reflected the lumbering industry. The book was retained<\/a>, but other communities\u00a0have attempted to have the book banned on similar grounds.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Editor’s note- this was intended for Banned Books week but glad to share now too!- Naomi<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Ashley Mancill previously published 10\/6\/14 BANNED! 8 Lesser-known Books Banned in the United States Most of us have read or at least know some of the works that are on the American Library\u00a0Association\u2019s lists of banned and challenged books. From literary masterpieces, to edgy young\u00a0adult fiction, to beloved tales and new classics in children\u2019s…<\/p>\n

Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":98908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[145],"tags":[69,5363,5394,5194,3592,5076,3624],"class_list":["post-82329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-article","tag-ashley-mancill","tag-banned-books","tag-banned-books-week","tag-blog","tag-books","tag-inalj-alabama"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Ashley-M.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1WoMK-lpT","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=82329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/98908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=82329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=82329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=82329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}