A
Selected Annotated List of Banned Books housed at the Jonathan Edward's
Library
Religion
The
Bible
New York, Oxford University Press, 1973. ##REF BS191.A1 1973 .N4
The
first incident of censorship to the printed Bible occurred in 1526
when sections of John Wycliffe’s translation of the Bible into
English printed for the first time by William Tyndale were suppressed
and the work denounced by the Cardinal Wolsey. Another incident
occurred 1534, with the burning of Martin Luther's translation by
order of the Pope. Both the Douai-Reims and King James version
of the Bible have been objects
of censorship at various times.
The
Bible continued to be banned throughout the centuries and is still
being challenged and banned today. Most recently in the United States
the Bible was challenged by a Brooklyn Center, MN atheist who sought
to “turn the tables on the religious right” by claiming
that the work was “lewd and indecent”. Another incident
occurred near Harrisburg, PA in 1993 where its unsuitability for
children was raised. Various
Protestant and Catholic translations of the Bible have been banned
internationally, most recently in the Middle East.
The Koran or Qur’an
New York, Dutton, [1909, 1963] ##REF BP109 .R6
The
sacred book to Islam, which was revealed to the Prophet Mohammed
over time. The work was originally a recited text, and was not compiled
into a written format until after the death of the Prophet.
The canonical text was created around 650 AD under the direction
of the Caliph, Uthman. Because of the structure of the book,
unlike the Bible, there is no chronology of revelations. Rather
each of the 114 chapters begins with a prayer to Allah. The
chapters focus on the significance of religious events rather than
the narrative of those events. The Koran is considered the
word of God, thus while translations exist, no translation is considered
accurate for religious purposes. The accuracy of the Islamic
version of the Qur’an can not be understated. In 1994
a missing verse in numerous copies of the Muslim holy book nearly
plunged Kuwait into political crisis.
The
Koran was a forbidden text in Spain between 1492 and 1790.
In 1793 a commentary on the work was published by the Sumptibus
Ordinales Inquisitiones or Office of the Inquisition in Salamanca
but the Koran continued to be placed on the Index Librorum until
the 20th century. The work was restricted in the former Soviet
Union in 1926. More recently in Malaysia the Koran was banned
(1995) in an effort to outlaw “deviant’ Islamic sects.
During China’s Cultural Revolution (1960’s – 1970’s)
the study of the Koran was forbidden. Ethiopia's socialist
government of the 1980’s banned and burned copies of the Koran.
The
Talmud
London, New York, F. Warner, 1876. BM502 .P63 1876
The
Talmud is the compilation of the Oral Law of Judaism, with commentary
by Rabbis. The Talmud differs from the Scriptures, or Torah.
This work is divided into two sections, Mishna, which is the oral
law, and the Gamara, which is commentary on the Mishna. There
are two schools that published the Talmud, the Palestinian
and Babylonian school, the latter being more comprehensive in content
and elegant in form. The latter was also the first to be translated
into English, late in the 19th century. Attached to both versions
of the Talmud are further commentaries collected in the intervening
centuries between 300 AD
and the early Middle Ages.
Censorship
and outright burning of the Talmud unfortunately has a long history.
While its suppression dates to at least the seventh century, during
the Middle Ages thousands of Talmud manuscripts were destroyed.
Robert Doyle, in Banned Books states, “During the Middle Ages
with the revival of learning and the appearance of books of theological
speculation, the Roman Catholic Church began to adopt a more severe
attitude toward suspect books. It began to examine Jewish
literature and the Talmud more intensively.” The work was burned
in Cairo, Egypt (1190); Paris, France (1244); Salamanca, Spain (1490)
it was burned in 1239 by Papal decree, and again under the tenure
of Pope Innocent IV. Pope Benedict XIII ordered all copies
confiscated and held. At this time Jews were forbidden to
possess any non-Christian material. In some countries like
Spain, not only was Jewish literature banned, but mass conversions
were forced upon the Jewish population. Those refusing were
expelled from the country.
The
Inquisition in 1555 again searched and seized all copies of the
Talmud. Pope Julius III ordered that no Christian was permitted
to own a copy of the Talmud. The Roman Index of 1559 prohibited
not only the ownership of the Talmud, but all works of Jewish doctrine
including the Torah, and such works as the Sephir Yetziriah.
(The Book of Splendors.) The library of the Hebrew School
at Cremona, a collection of 12,000 priceless works was burned to
the ground. Pope Clement VII again issued an edict forbidding both
Christians and Jews from possessing any Talmudic or Cabalistic texts.
More
recently, both the former Soviet Union and Nazi Germany repeatedly
censored and burned sacred Jewish Texts. The Catholic Church
made strides after the Second Vatican Council when an official statement
was made deploring anti-Semitism and the persecution of Jews.
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American
Literature
Capote,
Truman. In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple
Murder and its Consequences. New York, Random House [1966, c1965]
HV6533.K3 C3
Based on chilling murders committed in Kansas, and critically acclaimed
as documentary literature this work was most recently banned but
later reinstated after community protests at Windsor Forest High
School in Savannah, GA. (2000).
Gilstrap,
John. Nathan’s Run. New York : Harper Collins
Publishers, 1996. PS 3557 .I4745 N3 1996
Gripping story of a twelve year old fugitive accused of murder earned
both critical acclaim and negative responses. Banned from
the Annville-Cleona, PA High School library in 1998 because of charges
of profanity and violence the book was challenged in 2000 by the
Everett, Washington School District due to sexual content.
Fitzgerald,
F. Scott The Great Gatsby, New York, Scribner [c1953] PS3511.I9
G7 1953a
No other writer could capture the spirit of the devil-may-care,
prohibition era, flapper crazed Jazz age with such elegant poignancy
as Fitzgerald. Yet not even the linen crisp language of the
Great Gatsby is immune to the censor. The work was challenged
at Baptist College in Charleston, SC on grounds of inappropriate
sexual language. (1987)
Hawthorne,
Nathaniel The Scarlet Letter N.Y. Harper [1950] PS1868
.A1 1950
A tale of moral conflict set in Puritan New England, the Scarlet
Letter is considered by some to be the first American spiritual
novel. The work was the subject of savage attacks by moralists
shortly after its publication. It was challenged in the 20th
century, most recently in 1996 when it was banned from the Lindale,
TX advanced English reading list. It was challenged but retained
in 1999 by the West Middlesex, Pennsylvania High School.
Hemingway,
Ernest A Farewell to Arms New York, Scribner [1967] PS3515.E37
F2 1967
No single American is more responsible for the form of contemporary
writing than Ernest Hemingway. With an economy of words his
realistic and modern novels capture the disillusionment in and the
turbulence of society. In A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway, with
frank honesty, portrays the issues and tragedy of the first World
War. The work was banned in Italy (1929), Ireland (1929), and Germany
(1933). The issue of Scribner’s Magazine, where it originally
appeared, was banned in Boston. The work continues to be challenged,
most recently at the Vernon-Verona-Sheril, NY School District in
1980.
Lee,
Harper. To Kill A Mockingbird PS 3562 .E353 T6
Challenged by the Warren, Indiana Township in 1981 because it “represents
institutionalized racism” and by Waukergan, Ill School District
(1984), Kansas City, MO junior high schools (1985), Park Hill, MO,
Junior High School (1985), Santa Cruz, California Schools (1995),
Moss Point, Mississippi Scholl District (1996) because of use of
racial epithets and/or racial themes in the novel. The book
was banned from the Lindale, TX advanced placement reading list
in 1996.
Salinger,
J. D. Catcher in the Rye, Boston, Little, Brown, 1951
PS 3537 A426 C3 1951
A tale of disaffected youth, the work’s engaging, slangy first
person narrative about an AWOL prep school student on the loose
in New York has endeared it to youthful readers while making it
a favorite target of censors nationwide. A teacher was once
fired for assigning the work to an eleventh grade class. Repeatedly
challenged, most recently, by the Glynn Academy High School
in Brunswick, GA (1997), and the Limestone County, Al school
district (2000) it was banned by the Marysville, CA Unified School
District (1997) and the Windsor Forest High School in Savannah,
GA.
Steinbeck,
John Grapes of Wrath, New York : The Viking press, [c1939]
PS3537 .T3234 G8 1939
An epic study of the dispossessed American farmer during the Dust
Bowl years of the Great Depression, this work describes the universal
despair of victims of natural and economic disasters.
Following the Joad family in their migration west and chronicling
their struggles against the exploitation endured by agricultural
laborers, the book addresses the need for social justice.
Despite the overarching redemptive social message and honest treatment
of subject matter in 1939 the Grapes of Wrath was burned by the
staff of the East St.Louis Public Library, barred from the Buffalo,
NY Public Library, banned in Kansas City, MO and in Kern County,
CA. More recently, the work was Challenged at the Cummings
High School in Burlington, NC (1986), and by the Moore County School
System in Carthage, NC (1986). It was challenged by the Greenville,
SC schools in 1991 and by the Union City, Tennessee High School
in 1993. The reasons sited was the occasional use of vulgar
words.
Vonnegut,
Kurt Slaugherhouse-Five, New York Delacorte
Press [1969] PS3572.O5 S58
Master of wit and black humor, Vonnegut’s fantastic plots have
been frequently challenged and banned from libraries. This
work was actually publicly burned in Drake, North Dakota in
1973. Most recently it was challenged but retained As
an option for eleventh grade reading in in Prince William
County, VA (1998) But it was removed from the required reading list
of the Conventry, Rhode Island High School in 2000.
Whitman,
Walt Leaves of Grass New York, Viking Press,
1959 PS3201 1959
One of America’s greatest poets, Whitman celebrated personal
freedom, American Democracy and the brotherhood of man. Leaves
of Grass broke new ground as a work of poetry in its themes and
form.Published at his own expense, and edited throughout his life,
its free verse was met with praise as well as opposition.
The work was banned from Boston, New York and Philadelphia bookstores
in the 1870’s and 1880’s.
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American
Literature – African-American Authors
Walker,
Alice The Color Purple New York : Harcourt
Brace Jovanovich, c1982. PS3573.A425 C6 1982
The immensely popular work by one of the preeminent Black American
Writers, The Color Purple, a Pulitzer-Prize winning book, has repeatedly
been challenged and banned by schools and libraries across the nation.
Most recently, after months of controversy, it was retained as an
assignment at the Junction City, Oregon High School (1995). It was
challenged at the St. Johns County Schools in Saint Augustine, FL,
challenged by the Independent High School in Round Rock, TX, (1996)
and removed from the Jackson County West Virginia school libraries.
(1997) It was challenged but retained as part of a reading
list in Lima, Ohio, but removed from the Ferguson High School Library
in Newport News, Virginia.
Wright,
Richad. Native Son in Early works.
New York, N.Y. : Library of America : Distributed in the U.S. and
Canada by Viking Press, 1991 PS3545 .R815 1991a
Born on a plantation in Mississippi, Richard Wright’s powerful
themes of Black Americans ‘ struggles in White American society
met with fierce opposition. Reasons for book banning include objections
over language, violence and sex. The work was challenged most recently
bat Northwest High School in High Point, NC (1006). Irvington High
School in Fremont California (1998) and Hamilton High School in
Fort Wayne, Indiana.
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The
Classics
Boccaccio,
Giovanni. The Decameron . New York, Modern Library
[1955] PQ4272.E5 A39 1955
A monumental work of literature, The Decameron influenced authors
such as Chaucer. The book was first banned and burned in 1497.
More recently it was declared “obscene, lewd and lascivious:
by a Cincinnati, OH jury in 1906, and banned in the United States
until 1931.
Chaucer,
Geoffrey Canterbury Tales New York : Garden City
Publishing Co., c1934 PR1870.A1 N5 1934
Considered to be one of the greatest works of English literature.
Canterbury Tales is a brilliant, 17 thousandline poem of the journey,
and story telling of a group of pilgrims en route to the shrine
of St. Thomas aBecket at Canterbury Cathedral. An accurate description
of medieval society and norms, the work transcends history through
its portrayal of the human spirit. Despite its universal acceptance
in the pantheon of great literary works, Canterbury Tales continues
to be subject to challenges.
According
to Nicholas Karolides in 100 Banned Books: Censorship Histories
of World Literature, the work has been “expurgated almost from
its first appearance in America, and was still being subjected to
revisions as late as 1928. Even editions available today and
considered otherwise acceptable avoid some four-letter words.”
Canterbury Tales was removed from literature courses at the Eureka,
Ill High School in 1995 because parents were concerned about the
sexual content of some of the tales.
Dickens,
Charles Oliver Twist London : Macmillan
: New York : St. Martin's Press, 1962 PR4567 .A1 1955
Initially published in monthly installments, Oliver Twist is one
of the most endearing of Dicken’s tales. Both an entertaining
book and a decisive social commentary and criticism of such British
institutions as workhouses and orphanages, even Oliver Twist has
endured criticism. In 1949 a group of Jewish parents in Brooklyn,
NY brought a claim to court citing religious bias in the writings
of Dickens. Like Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, Oliver
Twist contains the prejudices of its time in its depiction of a
Jewish character named Fagan, who is the adult leader of a group
of pocket picking juvenile thieves.
Homer,
The Odyssey PA4025.A5
One of the two preeminent works of world literature by the author
and a prototype for all western literature created after its inception,
the Odyssey is an epic poem recounting the adventures of Odysseus
ten years after the fall of Troy. Yet, this Classic work has
encountered censorship. According to Ann Lyon Haight and Chandler
B. Grannis in their work, Banned Books, 387 B.C. to 1978 A.D., “Plato
suggested expurgating Homer for immature readers and Caligula tried
to suppress it because it expressed Greek ideas of freedom.”
Shakespeare,
William Twelfth Night from A new variorum edition
of Shakespeare. S. PR2753 .F5 1963a v. 1
Great Britain’s, and perhaps the World’s greatest playwright,
William Shakespeare shaped the English language with almost preternatural
skill. Four hundred years after he wrote his canon of classic plays
and collection of sonnets, his phrases and turns of speech are still
a part of our daily language. More than dramatic entertainment,
Shakespeare’s plays are examples of universal human struggles.
Their plots transcend cultural boundaries to reveal the truths and
secrets of the human soul that can be readily understood centuries
later, around the world.
Shakespeare
was no stranger to the censor. His Tragedy of King Richard
II earned him the anger of Queen Elizabeth I who ordered that all
copies be confiscated. Twelfth Night has also been challenged.
Recently it was removed from the High School of Merrimack, New Hampshire.
It was claimed there that the play encouraged a positive depiction
of homosexuality. Other plays by Shakespeare that have been
recently censored are Hamlet, banned in Ethiopia in 1978, and The
Merchant of Venice, banned in Midland, Michigan (1980) , and in
schools in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, Canada for anti-semitic
content (1986).
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Foreign
Literature
Joyce,
James Ulysses, with a foreword by Morris
L. Ernst and the decision of the United States District Court rendered
by Judge John M. Woolsey. New York, Modern Library 1961 PR6019.O9
U44 1961
Written between 1914 and 1921 and published in installments by small
presses in Zurich and Paris, the work met such opposition that it
could not initially be published in its entirety. The story,
written in a fragmented, refracted prose, recounts the day long
perambulations of Leopold Bloom through Dublin. It was not
published in Great Britain until 1936, and was banned in the United
States until 1933. The work is now heralded it as a work of
genius. It is considered the inspiration for much of post-
modern literature of the 20th century, influencing authors such
as Borges, Robbes-Grillet and Pynchon.
Golding,
Sir William The Lord of the Flies
New York, Coward-McCann, 1962. PR6013.O35 L6 1962
The tale of the struggles of a group of schoolboys shipwrecked on
a desert island following a nuclear war and the erosion of the some
of the basic social and moral values they were reared in.
A classic classroom text, this work has also met with opposition.
It was challenged in 1992 by the Waterloo, Iowa schools because
of language, and was challenged but retained on the 9th grade reading
list in Bloomfield, NY in 2000.
Hugo,
Victor Notre Dame de Paris PQ2286.
The beloved tale of Quasimodo, the Hunchback of Notre Dame and Esmeralda,
the
gypsy girl was listed in the index Librorum Prohibitorum from 1864
until 1959. It was also banned in Russia by Nicholas I.
Hugo,
Victor Les Miserables New York :
Modern library, [1931] PQ2286. M5 E5 1931
A panoramic epic set against the French Revolution. This work
was also on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum from 1864 until 1959.
Rushdie,
Salman The Satanic Verses. New York,
N.Y. : Viking, 1989, c1988 PR9499.3.R8 S28 1989
With lyrical style, this erudite study of good and evil, of reality,
displacement and fanaticism earned Rushdie a death penalty levied
by no one less than the Ayatollah Khomeni who decreed, “I inform
the proud Muslim people of the World that the author of the Satanic
Verses, which is against Islam, the prophet, The Koran, and all
those involved in its publication who were aware of its content,
Have been sentenced to death.”
The
work was burned and banned throughout the world. It was withdrawn
by the Police in West Yorkshire, England who were concerned about
the safety of the Bookshop owner and staff. It was challenged
in Wichita, Kansas (1989), in Venezuela reading or owning
a copy was punishable by law, in Japan, sale of the English language
version was banned. The Japanese translator was stabbed to
death and the Italian translator was attacked and injured.
in 1993, the Norwegian publisher was shot and injured.
Rowling,
J. K. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, NY:
Scholastic Press, 2001 PZ7.R79835 1998
Crafted in the tradition of such classics of British Literature
as Narnia, this work recounts the tale of Harry, an eleven year
old orphan living with his odious relatives who discovers
that he is really a wizard and has been accepted as a student at
the prestigious Hogwart’s School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
The story continues with his adventures at the school and his encounters
and magical battles against the dark forces that threaten his school,
his life and the world.
The
first in the series of award winning, internationally acclaimed
books about Harry, The Sorcerer’s Stone found itself on the
top of the list of most challenged books in 1998, three months after
its first American printing by Scholastic, Inc. in 2000 the number
of challenges to the Harry Potter series was three times that of
1999. That year the book was challenged but retained by the
Simi Valley, California School District, the Frankfort, Ill School
District, the schools of Arab, Alabama, the Fresno California Unified
School District classrooms, the Newfound Area School District in
Bristol, NH, Cedar Rapids, the Iowa School District and the Salamanca,
NY elementary school, to name just a few. The book was banned in
a number of libraries including the Bridgeport Township, Michigan
public school library.
The
book has been objected to on the grounds of the inappropriateness
of its thematic intensity, and its presentation of witchcraft.
Despite some of the negative reaction this corpus of works has received,
the series continues to reap praise from educators, parents and
young readers worldwide.
Swift,
Jonathan Gulliver’s Travels ; an annotated text
with critical essays. Edited by Robert A. Greenberg. New York
: Norton, [1961] PR3724 .G8 1961
Swift was one of Dublin’s greatest satirists and Gulliver’s
Travels is considered his masterpiece. This black humor satire
describes the adventures of Lemuel Gulliver’s visit to four
fantastic lands: Lilliput, whose inhabitants’ small stature
is contrasted with their pomposity; Brobdingnag, a land of Giants;
Laputa and Lagado, inhabited by philosophers and scientists who
postulate absurd theories about the world, and the kingdom of
the Houhynhnms, intelligent horses who live in proximity to bestial
humans called Yahoos. Gulliver’s Travels was denounced as obscene
in Ireland in 1726. Other works by Swift were placed on the
Index Librorum by Rome.
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The
Sciences
Darwin,
Charles B. On the Origin of Species. Philadelphia,
University of Pennsylvania Press, 1959. QH365 .O2 1959
Following a five year journey aboard the ship The Beagle, Darwin
was afforded the opportunity to study and eventually organize and
develop his theory of evolution. In the Origin of Species
he sets forth this theory. The work was immediately controversial.
Tennessee passed a law prohibiting the teaching of the theory of
evolution. The landmark Scopes “monkey trial” tested
this prohibition, but the work and theory continued to be controversial.
In 1968 the US Supreme Court considered another case and ruled that
the Arkansas Anti-Evolution Statute was unconstitutional.
Throughout the 1980’s the debate between the teaching of creationism
vs. evolution continued to rage with the most recent Supreme Court
ruling in Edwards vs.Aguillard deciding in favor of evolution.
(1987)
Galileo,
Galilei Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems
Berkeley, University of California Press, 1953. QB41 .G1356
First banned by Pope Urban VII a year after its publication, its
author placed under House arrest, the Catholic Church refused to
accept Galileo’s conclusions supporting the Copernican system
until 1824 when it announced that it agreed with “the general
opinion of modern astronomers” who were in fact reiterating
the findings that Galileo made centuries before. Galileo’s
name and work was removed in 1835 from the Index Librorum, as were
the names and works of Kepler and Copernicus. Still, it was
not until October 31, 1992, that Pope John Paul II rescinded the
charge of heresy levied upon Galileo for his belief that the earth
goes around the sun.
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Political
Philosophy
Paine,
Thomas The Rights of Man in the Collected Works
of Thomas Paine, New York, Citadel Press, 1945. JC177 .A3 1945
v. 1 & v. 2
Arriving in America with letters of introduction from none other
than Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine edited Aitken’s
Pennsylvania Magazine in the mid-1770’s and found himself drawn
into the political tribulations of the Colonies. His book,
Common Sense (1776) had a substantial influence on the drafting
of the Declaration of Independence. A pamphleteer throughout
the war, Paine became in diplomatic work in France after the Revolution.
From there he returned to England where he wrote The Rights of Man.
The
Rights of Man questioned Edmund Burke and others who criticized
the spirit of the French Revolution. Paine’s critical
appraisal of sacrosanct British institutions earned him the wrath
of the British government. Paine and his publisher were briefly
imprisoned. Once released he fled to France where he became
a member an influential member of the Convention. His frankness
and anti-Jacobism again landed him in prison where he languished
until American influence could secure his release.
Paine,
Thomas The Age of Reason in the Collected Works of
Thomas Paine,
New York, Citadel Press, 1945. JC177 .A3 1945 v. 1 & v. 2
The Age of Reason was Paine’s critical work on the Bible
and organized religion. The work found little support from his reading
public, and was not rehabilitated until after his death. Copies
were confiscated, and Paine and his publisher were again charged.
Paine returned to America in 1802, but was met with a steely response
to his sometimes petulant pronouncements. He died in 1809.
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Poetry
Ginsberg,
Alan Howl and Other Poems, San Francisco, City
Lights Books [c1959], PS3513.I74 H6 1959
Along with William Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, Alan Ginsberg founded
the Beat Generation influencing Poetry, literature and even music
well into the 20th Century. The psychedelic imagery, forbidden
themes, and electric metaphors sparked new life into the post-war
intellectual landscape of the otherwise drab 50’s. A
tremendous influence on not only young writers, but on the whole
counter-culture of the 1960’s, Ginsberg’s poetry was unabashedly
unafraid, and for that reason was the frequent target of censors.
Most recently Howl was prohibited in the Jacksonville, FL Forrest
High School.(2000)
Ginsberg,
Alan Kaddish and Other Poems San Francisco:
City Lights Books [1961] PS3513.I74 K3
Written in part as a response to the death of his mother, Kaddish
has been challenged a number of times. In 1976 it was banned
in Aurora, Colorado.
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