Book Censorship

Various levels of incidents which may lead to censorship:

1. Inquiry :an informational request, usually informal which seeks to determine the rationale behind the presence of a particular item in a collection.
2. Expression of Concern: an inquiry that has judgmental overtones.
3. Complaint: a formal written complaint filed with the library.
4. Attack: a publicly worded statement questioning the value of the material.
5. Censorship: the removal of material from open access.

A July 1990 Newsweek poll showed that 75 percent of Americans felt that the right of adults to "determine what they may see and hear" was more important than society having "laws to prohibit material that may be offensive to some segments of the community." (From: Marsh, David. 50 Ways to fight Censorship. New York: Thunder's Mouth, c1991:1-2.)

Some Banned Books:

• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland-Lewis Carroll.
• American Heritage Dictionary.
• Brave New World- Aldous Huxley.
• Catch 22- Joseph Heller.
• The Catcher in the Rye- J.D. Salinger.
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory- Roald Dahl.
• Diary of Anne Frank- Anne Frank.
• The Divine Comedy- Dante Alighieri.
• Faust- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
• Garfield: His Nine Lives- Jim Davis.
• Go Ask Alice- Anonymous.
• The Great Gatsby- F. Scott Fitzgerald.
• Lady's Chatterley's Lover- D.H. Lawrence.
• Leaves of Grass- Walt Whitman.
• Mother Goose: Old Nursery Rhymes- Arthur Rackman.
• Oliver Twist- Charles Dickens.
• To Kill a Mockingbird- Harper Lee.
• One Hundred Years of Solitude- Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
• Our Bodies, Ourselves- Boston Women's Health Book Collective.
• The Satanic Verses- Salman Rushdie.

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Last Updated: January 2005

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