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Literature suppressed on social grounds is seen, for whatever reason as not meeting a certain social or community standard and often labelled as unacceptable or harmful to particular readers. These books commonly dubbed as vulgar or obscene come under fire from their challengers and censors (often with the best intentions) for a variety reasons, including language, depiction of drug use, depiction and description of sexual relationships or sexual orientation and racial representation or characterisation.
The following list is made up of just some many well-known books that I have compiled from a number if ‘Challenged or Suppressed’ book lists that I have found online and in print, including three of ALA's Frequently Challenged books list that are linked a little further down.
Until now I have been unaware of the level of controversy some of these books have created.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X
The Basketball Diaries By Jim Carroll
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Camille by Alexandre Dumas. Jr.
Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English Edited by Robert. L. Chapman
Dracula by Bram Stroker
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
I Know Why the Cage Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Gorillas in the mist by Dianne Fossey
Lord of the flies by William Golding
Manchild of the Promised Land by Claude Brown
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
FEATURED BOOK: The adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
While The adventures of Huckleberry Finn is considered as an American Classic by many, it has also happens to be one of America’s most frequently challenged books since is publication in over 125 years ago. It appears on three of ALA’s banned book lists including Banned and Challenged Classics, 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books: 1990–2000 and 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books: 2000-2009.
Most of us will be familiar with the story of Huckleberry Finn. A boy on the run from his drunken father, accompanied by and his companion Jim, a runaway slave. The tale is of their journey down the Mississippi River on a raft, their friendship, their adventures and the people they meet along the way, with racism and slavery just two of the themes dealt with in the story.
The early challengers of the book complained mainly due to the immoral and wayward ways of Huck Finn, the bad grammar and common vernacular in the way the story was told. With the emergence of the civil rights movement in America in the 1950’s opposing views have more commonly been about racism and the reoccurring use if the word nigger.
Complaints have resulted in removal of the book from public and school libraries and specific editing of certain editions since the late 19th century. An article on banned books on the TIME website site tells us that, “In an attempt to avoid controversy, CBS produced a made-for-TV adaptation of the book in 1955 that lacked a single mention of slavery and did not have an African-American portray the character of Jim”.
Sourced mainly from the books, 120 Banned Books by Nicholas J.Kardolides, Margaret Bald & Dawn B. Sova and Banned Books : 387B.C to 1978 AD by Anne Lyon Height, the list below details only a small number of the many occasions that Huckleberry Finn has been suppressed or challenged.
I also searched online using a combination of terms for suppressed and banned literature and found corresponding information when I came across the Beacon for Freedom of Expression Database and The File Room. The Beacon for Freedom of Expression is worth a look.
1885
Concord (Massachusetts) Public Library banned the book, charging that novel was “trash suitable only for slums”. Conventional morality was offended by the street vernacular spoken by Jim and Huck, as well as by their coarse behaviour.
1902
Brooklyn Public library removed it from the children’s room on the charge that “Huck not only itched but he scratched and that he said sweat when he should have said perspiration”.
1930
Soviet border guards confiscated the novel, along with Tom Sawyer.
1957
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People protested the racist aspects of the book and demanded that it be removed from all High Schools in New York.
1975
Yielding to pressures across the nation (U.S.A), publishers met challengers by substituting the euphemisms for the term nigger. Scott, Foresman rewrote passages to eliminate the word, Singer replaced it with slave and McGraw-Hill replaced the term with servant.
1988
Caddo Parish (Louisiana) removed the novel from both its school library and reading list, charging that it contained racially offensive slurs.
1992
The school superintendent of Kinston (North Carolina) School District removed the book from the middle school in the belief that students were too young to read a work containing the word nigger
2003
Sourced from the School Library Journal Website:
Teachers in Escambia County, FL, will no longer be allowed to use The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn with students in grades 10 and below. That was the January 29 decision of the Escambia County School District, after a parent of a seventh-grader at Ransom Middle School complained that the racially charged content of the Mark Twain novel made the student uncomfortable, reports the Pensacola News Journal. School officials say the book will remain accessible to middle school students at the district's school libraries
Other Reference Material
Books
Karolides, N, Bald, M & Sova, D 2005, 120 banned books, Checkmark, New York.
Lyon Haight, A 1978, Banned books : 387B.C to 1978 B.C, 4th ed., R. R Bowker, New York.
Twain, M 2009, The adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Camberwell, Victoria.
E-books
Jarnow, J 2004, ‘Introduction’, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and race in America, The Rosen Publishing Group, New York, viewed 8 April 2010.
Sova, D 2006, Literature suppressed on social grounds, EBL EBook Library, Infobase, Rev. ed., New York, viewed on 10 April 2010.
Websites
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 2010, Librivox, viewed 10 April 2010.
Banned books 2010, TIME, viewed 8 April 2010.
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,1842832,00.html
Ockerbloom J, Banned books online 2010, The online books page, viewed April 8 2010.
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/banned-books.html
Other sites are referenced with links in blog post.
Journal Articles (Databases)
Bilyeu, S 2010, ‘Twain’s bad boy’, New York Times Upfront, March 1 2010, p.18-22, General Onefile, Gale, Document A219898767, viewed 11 April 2010.
Research and Reflection
First thing for me to say about this project is that I don’t want this to represent my opinions and stance on censorship. For the sake of the assignment, I’m just presenting the research that I find.
I looked around for a little bit (using TROVE and Swinburne's catalogue) and eventually found some relevant books that so far I have used as a launch pad for ideas and further research, which has worked well so I’ll keep doing this for the rest of the project. These books, which are referenced further up are great as they detail information on books that have been challenged in the past. Swinburne also has some great E-books that I will be able use in the same way for future blog posts.
There were a few other websites and an article that helped in regards to background information on the topic in general and specifically Huckleberry Finn, as I haven't read Huck Finn since High School, though I did skim through a Penguin Classic copy that is lying around at home. These have been listed in the reference list above.
I have found this to be really interesting subject but it is so easy to become side tracked and swallowed up by the sea of information out there.
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