Bell Library Banned Books Week/Open House 2018: Banned Classics

Each year, the ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom records hundreds of attempts by individuals and groups to have books removed from libraries shelves and from classrooms. According to the Office for Intellectual Freedom, at least 46 of the Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century have been the target of ban attempts. The titles included in the link represent banned or challenged books on that list.

In honor of Banned Books Week, we’ve compiled a list of popular classics that have been banned in the US at some time in history. While some of the novels presented here have been banned for a multiple reasons, we’ve listed them according to the most common one. Publishers’ descriptions included.

Experiments conducted by the University of Liverpool’s Centre for Research into Reading, Literature and Society (CRILS) have found that literary reading could help increase mental flexibility.

The works of Shakespeare and Wordsworth are “rocket-boosters” to the brain and better therapy than self-help books, researchers will say this week.

Information about Banned Books Week from the American Library Association.

Banned Books Week is the national book community's annual celebration of the freedom to read. Hundreds of libraries and bookstores around the country draw attention to the problem of censorship by mounting displays of challenged books and hosting a variety of events.

The Freedom to Read Foundation has been a sponsor of Banned Books Week since 2012. Started in 1982 to highlight the increase in challenges to books in libraries, schools, bookstores, and elsewhere. Banned Books Week is now a national—even international—celebration of the freedom to read.