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PCC Libraries support your freedom to read

Banned Books Week: September 23-30, 2006

Books usually are challenged with the best intentions-to protect others, especially children. Reasons for challenging a book may include the following:

  • is sexually explicit
  • contains offensive language
  • is unsuited to its age group
  • occult theme or promoting the occult or Satan
  • violence
  • promoting homosexuality
  • promoting a religious viewpoint
  • anti-family

Banned or challenged books
Title Author

Call Number
Availability/Location

Area of Concern
1984 George Orwell 823.912  O79  1983 Challenged in Jackson County, Florida because the novel is "pro-communist and contained explicit sexual matter"
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain) 813.4  C83  1977  c.2 Banned by Concord Public Library on grounds of it being "more suited to the slums than to intelligent, respectable people," recently its portrayal of race and word nigger has seen many efforts to remove from school list
Adventures of Tom Sawyer Mark Twain 813.4  T83  1981 "Questionable character" of the main character
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland  Lewis Carroll 823.8  C37  1993 Banned in China in 1931 because the talking animals were considered blasphemous to Chinese beliefs. 
All Quiet on the Western Front Erich Maria Remarque 833.912  R46  1982 Banned in Nazi Germany and was among the titles set for public burning in 1933
America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy In action Jon Stewart 818.5407  S84  2004 Banned by a Mississippi library because it contained images of Supreme Court Justices' faces on naked bodies
Animal Farm George Orwell 823.912  O78  1991 Banned in the U.S.S.R. for anti-communist themes, in some Islamic nations for "religious reasons".  It was also banned in the U.S.A. for communist material in its introduction, although the book itself was a vicious satire on Stalinism.
Another Country James Baldwin 813.54  B35a  1988 Some schools considered it pornographic
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, The Benjamin Franklin 973.3092  F73  1944 Banned For "social reasons"
Awakening, The Kate Chopin CHOPIN  1992 Banned for disagreeable glimpses of sensuality and language unfit for publication
Babbitt Sinclair Lewis 813.52  L45b  1950 Banned For "social reasons"
Beloved Toni Morrison 813.54  M67  1988 Challenged for its language
Bible, The William Tyndale 220.52034  BIBLE The author partially completed translating the bible into English, was captured, strangled, and burned at the stake (1536) by opponents of the movement to translate the bible into the vernacular. Beginning around 1830, "family friendly" bibles including Noah Webster's version (1833) began to appear which had excised passages considered to be indelicate. 
Black Boy Richard Wright 813.52092  W75  1945 Banned in American schools in the 70's for "obscenity" and "instigating hatred between the races"
Black Like Me John Howard Griffin 975.00496073   G75 1996 Banned for its portrayal of racial tension
Bless Me, Ultima Rudolfo Anaya 813.54  A52b 1989 Banned for profanity and pagan content
Bluest Eye, The Toni Morrison 813.54  M67b  1994 Banned for its explicit sexual content
Brave New World Aldous Huxley 823.912  H89br  [1991?] Banned in Ireland in 1932 for "centering around negative activity" also banned for language and anti-family and anti-Christian
Burger's Daughter  Nadine Gordimer 823.914  G67b  1980 Banned after the Soweto uprising
Call of the Wild Jack London 813.52  L66c  1990  Many of Jack London's books were banned in Europe for being "too radical" or having pro-socialist leanings. 
Candide Voltaire 843.5  V65  1975 U.S. Customs seized Harvard-bound copies of Candide. 
Canterbury Tales, The Geoffrey Chaucer 821.1  C53  1934 Banned for risqué subject matter
Catch-22 Joseph Heller 813.54  H45  1994 Banned for sexual content, depictions of defying authority, profanity, and racially insensitive content
Catcher in the Rye, The J.D. Salinger 813.54  S25  1991 Banned for profanity, sexual references and that it "undermines morality". Also called blasphemous by some because of repeated use of the word "goddamn"
Chocolate War, The Robert Cormier 813.54  C67  1975 Banned for language, depiction of schoolchildren bullying other children and many references to the protagonist pondering about his sexual orientation
Civil Disobedience Henry David Thoreau 818.303  T56  1986 Target of successful banning efforts by Joseph McCarthy
Clan of the Cave Bear  Jean Auel 813.54  A83c  1980 Banned from the Cascade Middle School library at Eugene, Oregon in 1992 for "hardcore graphic sexual content"
Clockwork Orange, A Anthony Burgess 823.914  B87c  1993 Banned from schools for language 
Cold Mountain Charles Frazier 813.54  C65  1997 Banned on political grounds for sympathetic portrayal of desertion 
Color Purple, The Alice Walker 813.54  W35c  1992 Most likely for graphic content
Cujo Stephen King 813.54  K56  1981 Banned for subject matter and language 
Decent of Man, The Charles Darwin 575.8  Dar Describing how man originated from primates
Earth's Children (Series) Jean Auel 813.54  A83  Banned for sexual references which were described vividly
Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury 813.54  B73f  1982 Copies used in school literature classes were edited to omit the words "hell", "damn", and "abortion" 
Final Exit Derek Humphry 362.28  H86  1991 Documents suicide techniques and  discusses euthanasia
Grapes of Wrath, The John Steinbech 813.52  S74g  1992 Banned for Language and depiction of migrant life. It was cited as socialist propaganda. Several months after book's publication, a St. Louis, MO library ordered three copies to be burned for the vulgar words used by its characters. It was also banned in Kansas City and in Oklahoma
Great Books of the Western World John Milton 821.47  M56  1955 Areopagitica - for plea against censorship. Paradise Lost - for denial of predestination
Group, The Mary McCarthy 813.54  M33  1963 Banned for sexually outspoken depiction of eight Vassar graduates in the 1930s
Gulag Archipelago 1918-1986, The Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 365.450947  S65g  1991 v.1 Banned in the U.S.S.R. for depicting human rights abuses by the Soviet government, particularly in its justice system and prisons 
Harry Potter: Chamber of Secrets J.K. Rowling 823.914  R69h  1999 Banned for the references to occult
Heart of Darkness  Joseph Conrad 823.912  C66h  1981 Banned for the use of the word "nigger" and depictions of graphic violence
Jest of God, A Margaret Laurence 813.54  L38  1966 Banned in some Canadian schools on religious grounds
Joy Luck Club, The Amy Tan 813.54  T36  1989 Challenged because of "conflict with the values of community" 
Jude the Obscure Thomas Hardy 823.8  H37j  1967 Challenged for child murder and suicide
July's People Nadine Gordimer 823.914  G67j  1981 Banned in its setting, South Africa
Kaffir Boy Mark Mathabane 968.00496024  M38  1987 Banned Because of its graphic content of child prostitution
Lady Chatterley's Lover D.H. Lawrence  823.912 L38 Banned in the U.K. because of explicit sexual content until a celebrated obscenity trial in 1961
Last Temptation of Christ, The Nikos Kazantzakis 889.3  K39  1988 Banned for religious reasons
Leaves of Grass Walt Whitman 811.3  W55l  1973 Banned for religious reasons and homoerotic themes
Like Water for Chocolate Laura Esquirel 863.6  E86l  1992 Contains sexually explicit and inappropriate material
Lolita Vladimir Nabokov 891.7342  N33l  1955 Banned for sexual themes
Lord of the Flies William Golding GOLDING 1954 Banned for child murder
Madame Bovary Gustav Flaubert 843.8  F53  1985 Formerly banned in France for political reasons and sexual content
Master and Margarita Mikhail Bulgakov 891.73  B85  1985 Not published until after the author's death because of censorship in Russia
Mein Kampf Adolf Hitler 943.086  H57  2004 Banned for racist material
Moll Flanders Daniel Defoe 823.5  D44  1985 sexual situations
Native Son Richard Wright 813.54  W75  1989 Banned for violence and rape
Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell 823.912  O79n  1992 Challenged in 1981, Jackson County of Florida on the founds that the book was "pro-communist and contained explicit sexual matter"
Of Mice and Men John Steinbech 813.52  S74s  1953 Banned for using offensive language, racism and violence
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Ken Kesey 813.54  K48o  1976 Banned for its close look into an all male asylum. The book showed the corrupt application of inflexible systems of social, medical or legal controls over the human mind. 
Ordinary People Judith Guest 813.54  G94  1976 Banned for teenaged suicide
Origin of Species Charles Darwin 575.0162  D37 1990 Banned for illustrating the concept of evolution
Rainbow Boys Alex Sanchez 813.6  S26r  2001 Banned because of gay content and pervasively vulgar
Rights of Man, The Thomas Paine 320  P35  1995 Banned in the U.K. and its author prosecuted for treason of its seditious content
Sanctuary William Faulkner 813.52  F39s  1958 Banned for sexuality and violence
Scarlet Letter, The  Nathaniel Hawthorne 813.3  H38  1983 Banned for religious reasons
Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut 813.54  V66k  1990 Banned for foul language and promoting deviant sexual behavior
Snow Falling on Cedars David Guterson 813.54  G87  1994 Banned by the Modesto, California city council from the schools because of "objectionable content"
Sons and Lovers D.H. Lawrence 823.912  L39  1913 Banned for sexuality themes
To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee 813.54  L44t  1999 Challenged for racial slurs
Ulysses James Joyce  823.912  J69u  1961 Banned in the United States until 1933 because it was considered impossible to read and obscene
Uncle Tom's Cabin Harriet Beecher Stowe 813.3  S76  1981 Banned in Southern U.S. states as anti-slavery propaganda and for negative depiction of slave-owners; banned in czarist Russia; banned in Waukegan, Illinois (1984) for undesirable racial language
Women in Love D.H. Lawrence 823.912  L38w  1967 Banned for sexuality

American Library Association offers expanded information about banned books.