This document provides a brief history of banned and challenged books from ancient times to the present. It discusses how censorship of written works began as a means of political control but shifted to a focus on morality during the Victorian era in England. The passage of the Comstock Act in 1873 in the United States led to censorship of any literature or art deemed obscene, including birth control information. Court cases in the 1960s tested American laws on pornography and helped establish that books like Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer were not legally obscene. Libraries continue to face challenges to books but promote freedom of expression and access to information.

1. Controversy Between the Covers:
A History of Banned and Challenged Books
Photo by Yusuke Suzuki, found at http://readingisfashionable.com/2011/05/made-from-books.html on September 20, 2012
EHW, 10/3/2012

2. Ancient Roots
A source of political control
Before me,
no history!
Focused on the writers and thinkers themselves, not their
works
Church as censor

3. Victorian England
(1837-1901)
What changed?
Victorian morality
Increased literacy
Printing and public
libraries
Role of Evangelicals
“informal” censors
Legal censorship applied
only to “obscene
publications,” which
included birth control

4. In the United States:
The Comstock Act (1873)
 The Tariff Act of 1842 allowed Customs to
seize and destroy obscene books entering the
country, but…
Violating the Comstock Act =
+
 Emphasis on “obscene literature and art,”
but a substantial focus on abortionists, sex
educators, and birth-control advocates.
Today – link to Section 507 of the 1996
Telecommunications Act ! Anthony Comstock
from American Heritage, October 1973

5. Court cases – “I know it when I see it!”
Textbooks
Research
Commission on Obscenity and Pornography (1970) recommended
loosening the legal restrictions on pornography, while the Meese
Commission (1986) pointed to causal relationships between pornography,
violence and organized crime!
A challenge = publicity

6. Libraries and Challenges
“The American Library Association promotes the freedom to choose or the freedom to
express one's opinions even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or
unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those viewpoints
to all who wish to read them.”
Challenges can be initiated by anyone – most commonly by parents. Based on:
- Offensive language -Violence - Age-appropriateness
- Sexual content - Occult references
Selection
vs.
censorship

8.  “Tropic of Cancer” was first published in 1934 by
the Obelisk Press in Paris, France, but this edition
was banned in the United States
 Its publication in 1961 in the U.S. by Grove Press led
to obscenity trials that tested American laws on
pornography in the early 1960s.
 Over 60 obscenity lawsuits in over 21 states were
brought against booksellers that sold it
 In 1964, the U.S. Supreme Court declared the book
non-obscene. It is widely regarded as an important
masterpiece of 20th century literature.

9. "not a book. It is a cesspool, an
open sewer, a pit of
putrefaction, a slimy gathering
of all that is rotten in the debris
of human depravity.“
Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice
Michael Musmanno

11. Video by the Crash Pad Puppets, found on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLprbWMd8mM
“A truly great library has something in it
to offend everyone.”

12. Sources
Altick, Richard D. Victorian People and Ideas. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1973.
Andrist, Ralph K. “Paladin of Purity.” American Heritage 24.6 (October 1973): 4+.
American Library Association website: http://www.ala.org, http://www.ala.org/advocacy/banned visited 26 Sept. 2012.
"Banned Books And Their Universal Availability." Journal Of Access Services 5.4 (2008): 597-609. Academic Search
Complete. Web. 28 Sept. 2012.
Chartrand, Harry Hillman. "Christianity, Copyright, and Censorship in English-Speaking Cultures." Journal of Arts
Management, Law & Society 22.3 (1992): 253. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 19 Sept. 2012.
LaMay, Craig L. “America’s Censor: Anthony Comstock and Free Speech.” Communications and the Law 19.3
(Sept. 1997): 1-59. Academic OneFile. Web. 26 Sept. 2012.
Noble, William. Bookbanning in America. Middlebury, VT: Paul S. Eriksson, 1990.
“Read No Evil.” Time Magazine (May 27, 1946): 29-30.
Scales, Pat. "What Makes A Good Banned Book?." Horn Book Magazine 85.5 (2009): 533. MasterFILE Premier. Web.
24 Sept. 2012.