CENSORED LITERATURE

Thanks EB -

Some American Library Association Links

ALA - 100 Most Challenged Books (includes Harry Potter, Maya Angelou, Mark Twain, The Bridge to Terabithia, Steinbeck, Daddy's Roommate)

ALA - Banned Books Week (in September)

Challenged vs. Banned Books

Thanks, Larry
I had found a great site, but the owner refused to let out a URL. I decided to kick off the thread anyway.
I have been a lifelong fan of Henry Miller. I recall the fuss that accompanied smuggled books from France. My first experience with Miller was a smuggled copy that I borrowed. After the Tropics trilogy, his writing mellowed quite a bit and often took a religious coloration. Most persons I talk to about him carry only a vision of the portions that got him banned.

The Henry Miller Library at Big Sur CA

Thanks for the link EB. Do you know, I checked out Tropic of Cancer from the library in 1974 and never returned it - library is still after me.

That knock on the door is Mr. Bookman, Larry!

Hope he doesn't give me an atomic wedgie! But I digress.

Heehee - I found my mummy and daddy's copy of "Lady Chatterley's Lover" as a weelowan not long after it was unbanned in Australia - can't remember what I thought of it then. But - Maya Angelou, Harry Potter and "The Bridge to Terebithia'!

I must go and explore the link.

Gracious heavens! Who is challenging these books!?

Mostly right-wing christians in the case of most of those books, like Potter and Bridge, but left-wingers aren't real fond of Huck Finn and a few others.

Hmmm - "Huck Finn" - left wingers have tried to ban "Huck Finn"?

Can you explicate?

They find the use of the word "nigger" offensive, and some think Twain's work is racist, or at least think the depictions of the slaves, particularly Jim in Huck Finn, perpetuate demeaning slave-era stereotypes.

Well, Edgarblythe, all these books (all of them being the world's classics) were prohibited before the WWII. I cannot imagine prohibition of any book on the grounds mentioned in the post-war period...

I think Johnny Got His Gun (sorry, forgotten the name of the author) was banned in the US .... Does anyone know the details?
It's a pretty powerful anti-war novel that I read years & years ago ...

Found this site:

BANNED

JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN
Published 1939, United States
Author: Dalton Trumbo
The story of Man named Joe Bonham who has had enough of war (World War 1) for what it has done to him mentally and physically--the emphasis is on the physical and it is horrific.

AUTHOR IS BANNED:

During World War 2 Johnny Got His Gun was suppressed because of its pacifistic tone. Oddly enough when the book went out of print and the author and publisher refused to reprint it, it was the extreme American Right that demanded to see the book surface again. They wanted to negotiate a peace settlement with Hitler and thought the book would be useful as propaganda. This Far Right also claimed that it was the Jews, Communists, and International Bankers that were suppressing the book. The fact is, it appears Dalton Trumbo supported the war effort against Hitler.

In 1947 Trumbo was blacklisted as one of the Hollywood Ten due to joining the Communist Party in 1943 (leaving the party in 1948). The author was subpoenaed before the House Committee on Un-American Activities for their investigation into Communism within the motion picture industry. Trumbo would not cooperate with answering their accusations and subsequently was cited for contempt of Congress. He was sentenced to a year in prison, but served 10 months instead.

As a result of the government witchhunt, the motion picture industry saved their asses by creating what is called "The Waldorf Agreement." To suck up to Congress they banned the Hollywood Ten including our famous Author--meaning he could no longer work in film whatever the position. This of course did not stop Dalton Trumbo since he wrote under aliases or other screenwriter's names.

EXAMPLES: The book Johnny Got His Gun was protested or censored in schools in:
1973, In the Midwest for vulgarity and language.
1977, In Michigan for too much profanity, gruesome details of a human being's physical condition, expressing unpatriotic and anti-American ideas and sexual passages.
1977, In Wisconsin for too much profanity.
1977, In Texas for being unpatriotic and anti-American.
1977, In Colorado for describing the main character's physical injuries.
1977, In Califorinia, for language and descriptions of sexual encounters.
1982, In Wisconsin, for being antiwar.
1982, In Vermont and Illinois, for being too violent.

Well, prohibition of anti-war literature in the middle of the war seems reasonable...

Thank you, LarryBS.
Fascinating!
I had no idea ... The trials & tribulations of the author are almost as dramatic as the novel.

steissd

As I recall it, the anti-war message of Johnny Got His Gun was not aimed at any particular country or political group.
It was more of a statement of rage, despair & sadness about what war can do to ordinary people.
It is very moving in parts, gut-wrenching in others & some sections could make the reader despair at the futility of war.

Hmm - I asumed nigger would offend - but is no quarter given for period? And the message of the book (Huck Finn, I mean) is anti-slavery - there is that supreme irony of Huck deciding to embrace evil by not returning Jim to his owner. Oh well...

I agree. But this may have a negative effect on morals of both soldiers and civilians of the fighting country.