Banned Book 100: A History of Censorship in World Literature

Author: Carolides Boldt Sowa (USA)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-05-01
Features: Through 100 classic works once deemed forbidden, explore the course of cultural evolution over thousands of years. This book compiles 100 famous works banned in the West for various reasons, including social, erotic, political, or religious factors. These include novels, poems, biographies, and other literary works, as well as religious classics and political manifestos. Works now widely recognized, such as The Decameron and The Red and the Black, are also included. Additionally, the book reconstructs the history of each work's banning based on detailed historical records, allowing readers to gain insight into the censorship systems in Western history and understand the development and evolution of human culture.
Throughout history, pioneering thinkers have continuously refined wisdom and resisted authoritarian regimes with their lives, ultimately breaking free from the confines of thought. The long night of intellectual history has begun to dawn.
This book selects 100 classic works that were once unacceptable in society or the ruling political environment due to social, erotic, political, or religious factors, including:
Social banned books: Catch-22, Leaves of Grass, The Diary of Anne Frank;
Erotic banned books: One Thousand and One Nights, Madame Bovary, Ulysses;
Political banned books: Doctor Zhivago, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Animal Farm;
Religious banned books: The Flying Dutchman, The Satanic Verses, Oliver Twist.
A Clockwork Orange has sparked much debate since its publication. The controversy primarily centered on the language used in the book and the scenes of brutal violence and sexual violence depicted in the early parts of the novel. In 1973, a book dealer in Orem, Utah, was arrested for selling three books with connotations: The Last Tango in Paris by Robert A. Heinlein, The Worshiper by William H. Gable, and this A Clockwork Orange. Based on the Supreme Court's 1973 decision in Miller v. California (June 21, 1973), the town passed a specific ordinance on materials. Under this ordinance, police charged bookstore owner Carol Grant. Although the charges were later dropped, Grant was forced to close her bookstore and move to another city.
In 1976, in Aurora, Colorado, the school board approved 1,275 books for use in middle schools during a regular meeting. However, ten books were rejected, including A Clockwork Orange. The other nine were The Exorcist by William Blatty, The Rebirth of Peter Brodsky by Max Ehrlich, New American Poetry 1945–1960 by Donald Allen, Journey from San Francisco by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Yage Letters by William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, The Heart of Coney Island by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Kaddish and Other Poems: 1958–1960 by Allen Ginsberg, Lunch Poems by Frank O'Hara, and Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin. These books had already been included in teachers' course reading lists, but on January 13, 1976, the school board issued a statement to the teachers stating: "These books will no longer be purchased, used as classroom assignments, or used to earn credit for anyone who has read them." The school board did not declare these books under the law or remove them from school libraries. Teachers protested the school board's decision and took it to court.
In court, based on relevant laws passed in 1977, the school board's decision was found to infringe on their academic freedom. In the ruling, Judge Mats said that by offering the course as an elective, the board "provided students with an opportunity for free exchange of ideas" and had fulfilled its duty. He also said: "It is sufficient to conclude that in these schools' classrooms, the administration has granted teachers and students the freedom to discuss contemporary literature." The school board may not have imposed their values on the literature they chose to consider.
Nevertheless, the judge still ruled against the teachers, as their contracts included a specific clause related to this issue, where they had already sold their rights to academic freedom.
In 1977, in Westport, Connecticut, parents protested the use of the book in middle school classrooms. In their protest, they...