# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
See also the Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 Novels of the 20th century list. Source: Banned Books: Challenging our Freedom to Read by Robert P. Doyle, ALA 2010.
The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Challenged at the Baptist College in Charleston, SC (1987) because of "language and sexual references in the book."
The Catcher in the Rye, by JD Salinger
Since its publication, this title has been a favorite target of censors.
The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck

Burned by the East St. Louis, IL Public Library (1939) and barred from the Buffalo, NY Public Library (1939) on the grounds that "vulgar words" were used. Banned in Kansas City, MO (1939).

Banned in Kern County CA, the scene of Steinbeck's novel (1939).

Banned in Ireland (1953).

On Feb. 21, 1973, eleven Turkish book publishers went on trial before an Istanbul martial law tribunal on charges of publishing, possessing and selling books in violation of an order of the Istanbul martial law command. They faced possible sentences of between one month's and six months' imprisonment "for spreading propaganda unfavorable to the state" and the confiscation of their books. Eight booksellers were also on trial with the publishers on the same charge involving The Grapes of Wrath.

Banned in Kanawha, IA High School classes (1980).

Challenged in Vernon Verona Sherill, NY School District (1980).

Challenged as required reading for Richford, VT (1981) High School English students due to the book's language and portrayal of a former minister who recounts how he took advantage of a young woman.

Banned in Morris, Manitoba, Canada (1982).

Removed from two Anniston, Ala. high school libraries (1982), but later reinstated on a restrictive basis.

Challenged at the Cummings High School in Burlington, NC (1986) as an optional reading assignment because the "book is full of filth. My son is being raised in a Christian home and this book takes the Lord's name in vain and has all kinds of profanity in it." Although the parent spoke to the press, a formal complaint with the school demanding the book's removal was not filed.

Challenged at the Moore County school system in Carthage, NC (1986) because the book contains the phase "God damn."

Challenged in the Greenville, SC schools (1991) because the book uses the name of God and Jesus in a "vain and profane manner along with inappropriate sexual references."

Challenged in the Union City, TN High School classes (1993).

To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee

Challenged in Eden Valley, MN (1977) and temporarily banned due to words "damn" and "whore lady" used in the novel.

Challenged in the Vernon Verona Sherill, NY School District (1980) as a "filthy, trashy novel."

Challenged at the Warren, IN Township schools (1981) because the book does "psychological damage to the positive integration process" and "represents institutionalized racism under the guise of good literature." After unsuccessfully trying to ban Lee's novel, three black parents resigned from the township human relations advisory council.

Challenged in the Waukegan, IL School District (1984) because the novel uses the word "nigger."

Challenged in the Kansas City, MO junior high schools (1985). Challenged at the Park Hill, MO Junior High School (1985) because the novel "contains profanity and racial slurs." Retained on a supplemental eighth grade reading list in the Casa Grande, AZ Elementary School District (1985), despite the protests by black parents and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People who charged the book was unfit for junior high use.

Challenged at the Santa Cruz, CA Schools (1995) because of its racial themes. Removed from the Southwood High School Library in Caddo Parish, LA (1995) because the book's language and content were objectionable.

Challenged at the Moss Point, MS School District (1996) because the novel contains a racial epithet. Banned from the Lindale, TX advanced placement English reading list (1996) because the book "conflicted with the values of the community."

Challenged by a Glynn County, GA (2001) School Board member because of profanity. The novel was retained. Returned to the freshman reading list at Muskogee, OK High School (2001) despite complaints over the years from black students and parents about racial slurs in the text.

Challenged in the Normal, IL Community High School's sophomore literature class (2003) as being degrading to African Americans.

Challenged at the Stanford Middle School in Durham, NC (2004) because the 1961 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel uses the word "nigger."

Challenged at the Brentwood, TN Middle School (2006) because the book contains "profanity" and "contains adult themes such as sexual intercourse, rape, and incest." The complainants also contend that the book's use of racial slurs promotes "racial hatred, racial division, racial separation, and promotes white supremacy."

Retained in the English curriculum by the Cherry Hill, NJ Board of Education (2007). A resident had objected to the novel's depiction of how blacks are treated by members of a racist white community in an Alabama town during the Depression. The resident feared the book would upset black children reading it.

Removed (2009) from the St. Edmund Campion Secondary School classrooms in Brampton Ontario, Canada because a parent objected to language used in the novel, including the word "nigger."

The Color Purple, by Alice Walker Ulysses, by James Joyce

Burned in the U.S. (1918), Ireland (1922), Canada (1922), England (1923) and banned in England (1929).
Beloved, by Toni Morrison

Challenged at the St. Johns County Schools in St. Augustine, FL (1995). Retained on the Round Rock, TX Independent High School reading list (1996) after a challenge that the book was too violent.

Challenged by a member of the Madawaska, ME School Committee (1997) because of the book's language. The 1987 Pulitzer Prize winning novel has been required reading for the advanced placement English class for six years.

Challenged in the Sarasota County, FL schools (1998) because of sexual material. Retained on the Northwest Suburban High School District 214 reading listing in Arlington Heights, IL (2006), along with eight other challenged titles. A board member, elected amid promises to bring her Christian beliefs into all board decision-making, raised the controversy based on excerpts from the books she'd found on the Internet.

Challenged in the Coeur d'Alene School District, ID (2007). Some parents say the book, along with five others, should require parental permission for students to read them.

Pulled from the senior Advanced Placement (AP) English class at Eastern High School in Louisville, KY (2007) because two parents complained that the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about antebellum slavery depicted the inappropriate topics of bestiality, racism, and sex. The principal ordered teachers to start over with The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne in preparation for upcoming AP exams.

The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding 1984, by George Orwell

Challenged in the Jackson County, FL (1981) because Orwell's novel is "pro-communist and contained explicit sexual matter."
Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov

Banned as obscene in France (1956-1959), in England (1955-59), in Argentina (1959), and in New Zealand (1960). The South African Directorate of Publications announced on November 27, 1982, that Lolita has been taken off the banned list, eight years after a request for permission to market the novel in paperback had been refused.

Challenged at the Marion-Levy Public Library System in Ocala, FL (2006). The Marion County commissioners voted to have the county attorney review the novel that addresses the themes of pedophilia and incest, to determine if it meets the state law's definition of "unsuitable for minors."

Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck Catch-22, by Joseph Heller

Banned in Strongsville, OH (1972), but the school board's action was overturned in 1976 by a U.S. District Court in Minarcini v. Strongsville City School District.

Challenged at the Dallas, TX Independent School District high school libraries (1974); in Snoqualmie, WA (1979) because of its several references to women as "whores."

Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley Animal Farm, by George Orwell

A Wisconsin survey revealed in 1963 that the John Birch Society had challenged the novel's use; it objected to the words "masses will revolt." In 1968, the New York State English Council's Committee on Defense Against Censorship conducted a comparable study in New York State English classrooms. Its findings identified the novel on its list of "problem books"; the reason cited was that "Orwell was a communist."

Suppressed from being displayed at the 1977 Moscow, Russia International Book Fair.

A survey of censorship challenges in the schools, conducted in DeKalb County for the period of 1979 to 1982, revealed that the novel had been objected to for its political theories.

Banned from Bay County's four middle schools and three high schools in Panama City, FL by the Bay County school superintendent in 1987. After 44 parents filed a suit against the district claiming that its instructional aids policy denies constitutional rights, the Bay County School Board reinstated the book, along with sixty-four others banned.

Banned from schools in the United Arab Emirates, along with 125 others in 2002. The Ministry of Education banned it on the grounds that it contains written or illustrated material that contradicts Islamic and Arab values-in this text, pictures of alcoholic drinks, pigs, and other "indecent images."

The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway

Banned in Boston, MA (1930), Ireland (1953), Riverside, CA (1960), San Jose, CA (1960).

Burned in Nazi bonfires in Germany (1933).

As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner

Banned in the Graves County School District in Mayfield, KY (1986) because it contains "offensive and obscene passages referring to abortion and used God's name in vain." The decision was reversed a week later after intense pressure from the ACLU and considerable negative publicity.

Challenged as a required reading assignment in an advanced English class of Pulaski County High School in Somerset, KY (1987) because the book contains "profanity and a segment about masturbation."

Challenged, but retained, in the Carroll County, MD schools (1991). Two school board members were concerned about the book's coarse language and dialect. Banned at Central High School in Louisville, KY (1994) temporarily because the book uses profanity and questions the existence of God.

A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway

The June 1929 issue of Scribner's Magazine, which ran Hemingway's novel, was banned in Boston, MA (1929).

Banned in Italy (1929) because of its painfully accurate account of the Italian retreat from Caporetto, Italy.

Burned by the Nazis in Germany (1933).

Banned in Ireland (1939). Challenged at the Dallas, TX Independent School District high school libraries (1974).

Challenged at the Vernon-Verona-Sherill, NY School District (1980) as a "sex novel."

Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston

Challenged for sexual explicitness, but retained on the Stonewall Jackson High School's academically advanced reading list in Brentsville, VA (1997). A parent objected to the novel's language and sexual explicitness.
Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison

Excerpts banned in Butler, PA (1975).

Removed from the high school English reading list in St. Francis, WI (1975).

Retained in the Yakima, WA schools (1994) after a five-month dispute over what advanced high school students should read in the classroom. Two parents raised concerns about profanity and images of violence and sexuality in the book and requested that it be removed from the reading list.

Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison

Challenged, but retained, in the Columbus, OH schools (1993). The complainant believed that the book contains language degrading to blacks, and is sexually explicit.

Removed from required reading lists and library shelves in the Richmond County, GA. School District (1994) after a parent complained that passages from the book are "filthy and inappropriate."

Challenged at the St. Johns County Schools in St. Augustine, FL (1995). Removed from the St. Mary's County, MD schools' approved text list (1998) by the superintendent, overruling a faculty committee recommendation. Complainants referred to the novel as "filth," "trash," and "repulsive."

Reinstated in the Shelby, MI school Advanced Placement English curriculum (2009), but parents are to be informed in writing and at a meeting about the book's content. Students not wanting to read the book can choose an alternative without academic penalty. The superintendent had suspended the book from the curriculum.

Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell

Banned from Anaheim, CA Union High School District English classrooms (1978).

Challenged in Waukegan, IL School District (1984) because the novel uses the word "nigger."

Native Son, by Richard Wright One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey

Challenged in the Greeley, CO public school district (1971) as a non-required American Culture reading.

In 1974, five residents of Strongsville, OH, sued the board of education to remove the novel. Labeling it "pornographic," they charged the novel "glorifies criminal activity, has a tendency to corrupt juveniles and contains descriptions of bestiality, bizarre violence, and torture, dismemberment, death, and human elimination."

Removed from public school libraries in Randolph, NY, and Alton, OK (1975).

Removed from the required reading list in Westport, MA (1977).

Banned from the St. Anthony, ID Freemont High School classrooms (1978) and the instructor fired. The teacher sued. A decision in the case-Fogarty v. Atchley-was never published.

Challenged at the Merrimack, NH High School (1982).

Challenged as part of the curriculum in an Aberdeen, WA High School honors English class (1986) because the book promotes "secular humanism." The school board voted to retain the title.

Challenged at the Placentia-Yorba Linda, CA Unified School District (2000) after complaints by parents stated that teachers "can choose the best books, but they keep choosing this garbage over and over again."

Slaughterhouse Five, by Kurt Vonnegut For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway

Declared non-mailable by the U.S. Post Office (1940). On Feb. 21, 1973, eleven Turkish book publishers went on trial before an Istanbul martial law tribunal on charges of publishing, possessing, and selling books in violation of an order of the Istanbul martial law command. They faced possible sentences of between one month's and six months' imprisonment "for spreading propaganda unfavorable to the state" and the confiscation of their books. Eight booksellers also were on trial with the publishers on the same charge involving For Whom the Bell Tolls.
The Call of the Wild, by Jack London

Banned in Italy (1929), Yugoslavia (1929), and burned in Nazi bonfires (1933).
Go Tell It on the Mountain, by James Baldwin

Challenged as required reading in the Hudson Falls, NY schools (1994) because the book has recurring themes of rape, masturbation, violence, and degrading treatment of women.

Challenged as a ninth-grade summer reading option in Prince William County, VA (1988) because the book is "rife with profanity and explicit sex."

All the King's Men, by Robert Penn Warren

Challenged at the Dallas, TX Independent School District high school libraries (1974).
The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien

Burned in Alamagordo, NM (2001) outside Christ Community Church along with other Tolkien novels as satanic.
The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair

Banned from public libraries in Yugoslavia (1929). Burned in the Nazi bonfires because of Sinclair's socialist views (1933).

Banned in East Germany (1956) as inimical to communism.

Banned in South Korea (1985).

Lady Chatterley's Lover, by D.H. Lawrence

Banned by U.S. Customs (1929).

Banned in Ireland (1932), Poland (1932), Australia (1959), Japan (1959), India (1959).

Banned in Canada (1960) until 1962.

Dissemination of Lawrence's novel has been stopped in China (1987) because the book "will corrupt the minds of young people and is also against the Chinese tradition."

A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess

In 1973 a bookseller in Orem, UT was arrested for selling the novel. Charges were later dropped, but the book seller was forced to close the store and relocate to another city.

Removed from Aurora, CO high school (1976) due to "objectionable" language and from high school classrooms in Westport, MA (1977) because of "objectionable" language.

Removed from two Anniston, AL High school libraries (1982), but later reinstated on a restricted basis.

The Awakening, by Kate Chopin

Retained on the Northwestern Suburban High School District 214 reading list in Arlington Heights, IL along with eight other challenged titles in 2006. A board member, elected amid promises to bring her Christian beliefs into all board decision-making, raised the controversy based on excerpts from the books she'd found on the Internet.

First published in 1899, this novel so disturbed critics and the public that it was banished for decades afterward.

In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote

Banned, but later reinstated after community protests at the Windsor Forest High School in Savannah, GA (2000). The controversy began in early 1999 when a parent complained about sex, violence, and profanity in the book that was part of an Advanced Placement English Class.
Satanic Verses, by Salman Rushdie

Banned in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Somalia, Sudan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Quatar, Indonesia, South Africa, and India because of its criticism of Islam.

Burned in West Yorkshire, England (1989) and temporarily withdrawn from two bookstores on the advice of police who took threats to staff and property seriously.

In Pakistan five people died in riots against the book. Another man died a day later in Kashmir.

Ayatollah Khomeni issued a fatwa or religious edict, stating, "I inform the proud Muslim people of the world that the author of the Satanic Verses, which is against Islam, the prophet, and the Koran, and all those involved in its publication who were aware of its content, have been sentenced to death."

Challenged at the Wichita, KS Public Library (1989) because the book is "blasphemous to the prophet Mohammed."

In Venezuela, owning or reading it was declared a crime under penalty of 15 months' imprisonment.

In Japan, the sale of the English-language edition was banned under the threat of fines.

The governments of Bulgaria and Poland also restricted its distribution.

In 1991, in separate incidents, Hitoshi Igarashi, the Japanese translator, was stabbed to death and its Italian translator, Ettore Capriolo, was seriously wounded. In 1993 William Nygaard, its Norwegian publisher, was shot and seriously injured.

Sophie's Choice, by William Styron

Banned in South Africa in 1979.

Returned to La Mirada High School library (CA) in 2002 after a complaint about its sexual content prompted the school to pull the award-winning novel about a tormented Holocaust survivor.

Sons and Lovers, by D.H. Lawrence

In 1961 an Oklahoma City group called Mothers United for Decency hired a trailer, dubbed it "smutmobile," and displayed books deemed objectionable, including Lawrence's novel.
Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut

The Strongsville, Ohio School Board (1972) voted to withdraw this title from the school library; this action was overturned in 1976 by a U.S. District Court in Minarcini v. Strongsville City School District, 541 F. 2d 577 (6th Cir. 1976).

Challenged at Merrimack, NH High School (1982).

A Separate Peace, by John Knowles Naked Lunch, by William S. Burroughs

Found obscene in Boston, MA Superior Court (1965). The finding was reversed by the State Supreme Court the following year.
Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh

Alabama Representative Gerald Allen (R-Cottondale) proposed legislation that would prohibit the use of public funds for the "purchase of textbooks or library materials that recognize or promote homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle." The bill also proposed that novels with gay protagonists and college textbooks that suggest homosexuality is natural would have to be removed from library shelves and destroyed. The bill would impact all Alabama school, public, and university libraries. While it would ban books like Heather Has Two Mommies, it could also include classic and popular novels with gay characters such as Brideshead Revisited, The Color Purple or The Picture of Dorian Gray (2005).
Women in Love, by DH Lawrence

Seized by John Summers of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice and declared obscene (1922).
The Naked and the Dead, by Norman Mailer

Banned in Canada (1949) and Australia (1949).
Tropic of Cancer, by Henry Miller

Banned from U.S. Customs (1934).

The U.S. Supreme Court found the novel not obscene (1964). Banned in Turkey (1986).

An American Tragedy, by Theodore Dreiser

Banned in Boston, MA (1927) and burned by the Nazis in Germany (1933) because it "deals with low love affairs."
Rabbit, Run, by John Updike

Banned in Ireland in 1962 because the Irish Board of Censors found the work "obscene" and "indecent," objecting particularly to the author's handling of the characters' sexuality, the "explicit sex acts" and "promiscuity." The work was officially banned from sales in Ireland until the introduction of the revised Censorship Publications Bill in 1967.

Restricted to high school students with parental permission in the six Aroostock County, ME community high school libraries (1976) because of passages in the book dealing with sex and an extramarital affair.

Removed from the required reading list for English class at the Medicine Bow, WY Junior High School (1986) because of sexual references and profanity in the book.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Banned and/or Challenged Books from the Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
See also the Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 Novels of the 20th century list. Source: Banned Books: Challenging our Freedom to Read by Robert P. Doyle, ALA 2010. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald Challenged at the Baptist College in Charleston, SC (1987) because of "language and sexual references in the book."

# data[].attributes.body
Slaughterhouse Five

# data[].attributes.body
Slaughterhouse Five

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Since first being published in 1967, and despite being considered one of the great modern novels, Kurt Vonnegut's time-hopping, semi-autobiographical, anti-war classic, Slaughterhouse-Five, has been, and continues to be, banned from classrooms and libraries the world over due to what is often described by those who censor it as its "obscene" content. This view wasn't held by Bruce Severy, a then-26-year-old English teacher at Drake High School, North Dakota, who in 1973 decided to use the novel as a teaching aid in his classroom, much to the delight of his students. Unfortunately for them, the head of the school board, Charles McCarthy, had other ideas: the next month, on November 10th, he demanded that all 32 copies be burned in the school's furnace.

Days later, an angry and disappointed Kurt Vonnegut wrote to Charles McCarthy and made his feelings known. His letter failed to generate a reply.

( Source: The Letters of Note book, reproduced with permission of The Estate of Kurt Vonnegut.)

November 16, 1973

Dear Mr. McCarthy:

I am writing to you in your capacity as chairman of the Drake School Board. I am among those American writers whose books have been destroyed in the now famous furnace of your school.

Certain members of your community have suggested that my work is evil. This is extraordinarily insulting to me. The news from Drake indicates to me that books and writers are very unreal to you people. I am writing this letter to let you know how real I am.

I want you to know, too, that my publisher and I have done absolutely nothing to exploit the disgusting news from Drake. We are not clapping each other on the back, crowing about all the books we will sell because of the news. We have declined to go on television, have written no fiery letters to editorial pages, have granted no lengthy interviews. We are angered and sickened and saddened. And no copies of this letter have been sent to anybody else. You now hold the only copy in your hands. It is a strictly private letter from me to the people of Drake, who have done so much to damage my reputation in the eyes of their children and then in the eyes of the world. Do you have the courage and ordinary decency to show this letter to the people, or will it, too, be consigned to the fires of your furnace?

I gather from what I read in the papers and hear on television that you imagine me, and some other writers, too, as being sort of ratlike people who enjoy making money from poisoning the minds of young people. I am in fact a large, strong person, fifty-one years old, who did a lot of farm work as a boy, who is good with tools. I have raised six children, three my own and three adopted. They have all turned out well. Two of them are farmers. I am a combat infantry veteran from World War II, and hold a Purple Heart. I have earned whatever I own by hard work. I have never been arrested or sued for anything. I am so much trusted with young people and by young people that I have served on the faculties of the University of Iowa, Harvard, and the City College of New York. Every year I receive at least a dozen invitations to be commencement speaker at colleges and high schools. My books are probably more widely used in schools than those of any other living American fiction writer.

If you were to bother to read my books, to behave as educated persons would, you would learn that they are not sexy, and do not argue in favor of wildness of any kind. They beg that people be kinder and more responsible than they often are. It is true that some of the characters speak coarsely. That is because people speak coarsely in real life. Especially soldiers and hardworking men speak coarsely, and even our most sheltered children know that. And we all know, too, that those words really don't damage children much. They didn't damage us when we were young. It was evil deeds and lying that hurt us.

After I have said all this, I am sure you are still ready to respond, in effect, "Yes, yes-but it still remains our right and our responsibility to decide what books our children are going to be made to read in our community." This is surely so. But it is also true that if you exercise that right and fulfill that responsibility in an ignorant, harsh, un-American manner, then people are entitled to call you bad citizens and fools. Even your own children are entitled to call you that.

I read in the newspaper that your community is mystified by the outcry from all over the country about what you have done. Well, you have discovered that Drake is a part of American civilization, and your fellow Americans can't stand it that you have behaved in such an uncivilized way. Perhaps you will learn from this that books are sacred to free men for very good reasons, and that wars have been fought against nations which hate books and burn them. If you are an American, you must allow all ideas to circulate freely in your community, not merely your own.

If you and your board are now determined to show that you in fact have wisdom and maturity when you exercise your powers over the eduction of your young, then you should acknowledge that it was a rotten lesson you taught young people in a free society when you denounced and then burned books-books you hadn't even read. You should also resolve to expose your children to all sorts of opinions and information, in order that they will be better equipped to make decisions and to survive.

Again: you have insulted me, and I am a good citizen, and I am very real.

Kurt Vonnegut

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Since first being published in 1967, and despite being considered one of the great modern novels, Kurt Vonnegut's time-hopping, semi-autobiographical, anti-war classic, Slaughterhouse-Five , has been, and continues to be, banned from classrooms and libraries the world over due to what is often described by those who censor it as its "obscene" content.

# data[].attributes.body
Sharpstown High School 2013-14

# data[].attributes.body
Introducing Slaughterhouse Five

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Kurt Vonnegut  interview in 2005 "Im a man without a country" - one of last before 2007 death