Fiction – Banned Books: A Digital Collection

Element	Value	Value Standard
dc.title	Invisible Man
dc.creator	Ellison, Ralph
dc.subject	African Americans; Blacks–United States; Racism–United States; America–Race relations.	LCSH
dc.description	Invisible Man is a novel by Ralph Ellison about an African American man whose color renders him invisible, published by Random House in 1952.
dc.publisher	Random House
dc.date	1952	W3CDTF
dc.type	Text	DCMIType
dc.format	Paperback; 581 pages; 5.2 x 0.9 x 7.9 in.
dc.identifier	ISBN: 978-0679732761
dc.source	http://www.amazon.com/Invisible-Man-Ralph-Ellison/dp/0679732764
dc.language	en-US	RFC4646
dc.relation	Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison; originally published by Random House; New York: 1952.
dc.rights	Ralph Ellison

Ellison’s first novel, which masterfully recounts the experiences of an unnamed black narrator who navigates life in the South and then in New York City, has been challenged or banned in schools since it’s publication in 1952. The most common reasons cited for banning are: obscene language, sexual content, and violence. An un-cited reason may be Ellison’s honest and unflinching portrayal of racism in America.

http://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/classics/reasons

http://articles.latimes.com/2013/sep/19/entertainment/la-et-jc-ralph-ellison-invisible-man-banned-north-carolina-20130919

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Published on May 2, 2016May 5, 2016 by bannedbooksprojectblog1 Comment

Element	Value	Value Standard
dc.title	Slaughterhouse-Five
dc.creator	Vonnegut, Kurt, 1922-2007
dc.subject	World War, 1939-1945; Satire; Post-traumatic stress disorder	LCSH
dc.description	This satirical book shows an American soldier during World War II, suffering from PTSD and experiencing what he believes to be his former life through a series of flashbacks.
dc.publisher	Dell

dc.date	11-03-1991	W3CDTF
dc.type	Text	DCMIType
dc.format	Paperback book, 215 pages, 4.1 x 0.6 x 6.8 in.
dc.identifier	ISBN-13 978-0440180296
dc.source	http://www.amazon.com/Slaughterhouse-Five-Kurt-Vonnegut/dp/0440180295/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1462158574&sr=8-1&keywords=slaughterhouse+five
dc.language	en-US	RFC4646
dc.relation	Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut; originally published by Delacorte; New York: 1969

dc.rights	Kurt Vonnegut

Through flashbacks, this satirical anti-war book tells the story of a disoriented American soldier who believes himself to have experienced things like alien abduction and time travel before being taken prisoner by German soldiers. It has been consistently banned and challenged since its publication in 1969 for being “depraved,” “vulgar,” “anti-Christian” and “anti-American,” as well as containing explicit sexual content.

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/08/the-neverending-campaign-to-ban-slaughterhouse-five/243525/

http://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/classics/reasons

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Published on May 2, 2016May 5, 2016 by bannedbooksprojectblog1 Comment

Element	Value	Value Standard
dc.title	Their Eyes Were Watching God
dc.creator	Hurston, Zora Neale, 1891-1960
dc.subject	Racism; Marriage-Fiction; Southern States; African American Women	LCSH
dc.description	An extended flashback as the main character, Janie, tells the story of her life. She goes through marriages to three different men, the last of which was finally a happy one, while dealing with violence and racism as an African-American woman in the early 1900’s South.
dc.publisher	Harper Perennial Modern Classics
dc.contributor	Henry Louis Gates Jr.; Edwidge Danticat
dc.date	05-30-2006	W3CDTF
dc.type	Text	DCMIType
dc.format	Paperback book, 219 pages, 5.5 x 0.6 x 8.2 in.
dc.identifier	ISBN-13 978-0061120060
dc.source	http://www.amazon.com/Their-Eyes-Were-Watching-God/dp/0061120065/ref=sr_1_1_twi_pap_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1461872392&sr=1-1&keywords=their+eyes+were+watching+god+book
dc.language	en-US	RFC4646
dc.relation	Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston; originally published by J. B. Lippincott; Philadelphia: September 18, 1937

dc.rights	Zora Neale Hurston

Janie tells a friend the story of her life and struggles throughout her three marriages, beginning when she is sixteen and ending in her forties after losing her third husband. This is generally banned from high schools due to language and sexually explicit content, as well as some violence between Janie and her husbands.

http://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/classics/reasons

Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Published on May 2, 2016May 5, 2016 by bannedbooksprojectblog1 Comment

Element	Value	Value Standard
dc.title	Gone With the Wind
dc.creator	Mitchell, Margaret, 1900-1949
dc.subject	Coming of age- Fiction; Slavery; Slavery in Literature; United States–History–Civil War, 1861-1865	LCSH
dc.description	In this “epic novel of love and war,” Scarlett O’Hara, the spoiled daughter of a plantation owner, must survive on her own and find a way out of poverty in the Civil War South.
dc.publisher	Macmillan

dc.date	1964	W3CDTF
dc.type	Text	DCMIType
dc.format	Hardcover book, 833 pages, 8.5 x 5.9 x 1.9 in.
dc.identifier	ISBN-13 978-0025853904
dc.source	http://www.amazon.com/Gone-Wind-Margaret-Mitchell/dp/B000GISOGS/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1461871698&sr=8-5&keywords=gone+with+the+wind
dc.language	en-US	RFC4646
dc.relation	Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell; originally published by Macmillan Publishers; New York: June 10, 1936

dc.rights	Margaret Mitchell

Gone with the Wind follows the struggles of Scarlett O’Hara during and after the Civil War, as well as her on-again, off-again relationships with Ashley Wilkes and Rhett Butler. Many people have the opinion that Gone with the Wind should be banned due to racial slurs, as well as the underlying racism in both the way slaves were treated by the characters and portrayed by the narrative.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/2011/0928/20-banned-books-that-may-surprise-you/Gone-with-the-Wind-by-Margaret-Mitchell

https://prezi.com/kdkcv_ww67je/why-is-gone-with-the-wind-banned-and-challenged/

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Published on May 2, 2016May 5, 2016 by bannedbooksprojectblog1 Comment

Element	Value	Value Standard
dc.title	To Kill a Mockingbird
dc.creator	Lee, Harper, 1926-2016
dc.subject	Racism, Lawyers, Fathers and daughters, Race relations	LCSH
dc.description	A young girl experiences prejudice in the South as her father, a lawyer, defends a black man wrongly accused of a crime.
dc.publisher	Harper Perennial Modern Classics

dc.date	03-01-2004	W3CDTF
dc.type	Text	DCMIType
dc.format	Paperback book, 385 pages, 1 x 5.2 x 8.2 in.
dc.identifier	ISBN-13 978-0060935467
dc.source	http://www.amazon.com/Kill-Mockingbird-Harper-Lee/dp/0060935464/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
dc.language	en-US	RFC4646
dc.relation	To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee; originally published by Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia: July 11, 1960

dc.rights	Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird shows a young girl learning about prejudice and racism for the first time when her father, a lawyer in their small southern town, defends a black man wrongly accused of rape. It has been challenged or banned consistently since it came out for various reasons. The most common are vulgar language and sexual content, racial slurs, and the idea that it promotes institutionalized racism. Almost 60 years after it was first published, To Kill a Mockingbird remains one of the most commonly banned classic novels.

http://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/classics/reasons

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/to-kill-a-mockingbird-remains-among-top-banned-classical-novels/

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Published on May 1, 2016 by bannedbooksprojectblog1 Comment

Element	Value	Value Standard
dc.title	The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-time Indian
dc.creator	Alexie, Sherman
dc.subject	Fiction – Native America, Fiction – Indian, Fiction – Reservation, Fiction – Teenage Boys, Fiction – Race relations, Fiction – alcoholism, Fiction – cartoonist
dc.description	Junior is a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.
dc.publisher	Little Brown Books for Young Readers
dc.contributor	Sherman Alexie and Ellen Forney – Illustrator
dc.date	September 12, 2007
dc.type	Text
dc.format	Hardcover, 240 pages, 5.8 x 0.9 x 8.5 inches
dc.identifier	978-0316013680	ISBN
dc.source	http://www.amazon.com/Absolutely-True-Diary-Part-Time-Indian/dp/0316013684/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1462129354&sr=1-1
dc.language	en-US
dc.relation	The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie, September 12, 2007
dc.rights	All rights reserved

Arnold Spirit, a goofy-looking dork with a decent jumpshot, spends his time lamenting life on the “poor-ass” Spokane Indian reservation, drawing cartoons (which accompany, and often provide more insight than, the narrative), and, along with his aptly named pal Rowdy, laughing those laughs over anything and nothing that affix best friends so intricately together. When a teacher pleads with Arnold to want more, to escape the hopelessness of the rez, Arnold switches to a rich white school and immediately becomes as much an outcast in his own community as he is a curiosity in his new one. He weathers the typical teenage indignations and triumphs like a champ but soon faces far more trying ordeals as his home life begins to crumble and decay amidst the suffocating mire of alcoholism on the reservation

From the Huffington Post on a school in Idaho that has banned the book:

The school board’s decision to seek an alternative book to convey “the cultural messages” of Alexie’s work came after complaints from parents that the book contained sexually charged material inappropriate for their children, was peppered with pejorative terms for women, people of various races and those with learning disabilities and mocked Christian beliefs.

Descriptions retrieved 01 May 2016 from: http://www.amazon.com/Absolutely-True-Diary-Part-Time-Indian/dp/0316013684/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1462129354&sr=1-1 and

Idaho bans native american book. Huffington Post. Retrieved 01 May 2016: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/04/idaho-bans-native-american-book_n_5094525.html

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Published on May 1, 2016May 1, 2016 by bannedbooksprojectblog1 Comment

Element	Value	Value Standard
dc.title	The Color Purple
dc.creator	Walker, Alice
dc.subject	Fiction – African-American, Fiction – Woman, Fiction – Bigotry, Fiction – incest, Fiction – sexual abuse, Fiction – abuse, Fiction – Africa, Fiction – Missionary, Fiction – Sisters, Fiction – South, Rural, Fiction – Purple
dc.description	An epic tale spanning forty years in the life of Celie, an African-American woman living in the South who survives incredible abuse and bigotry. After Celie’s abusive father marries her off to the equally debasing “Mister” Albert Johnson, things go from bad to worse, leaving Celie to find companionship anywhere she can. She perseveres, holding on to her dream of one day being reunited with her sister in Africa.
dc.publisher	Mariner Books
dc.contributor	Alice Walker
dc.date	June 4, 1905
dc.type	Text
dc.format	Paperback, 300 pages, 5.3 x 0.7 x 8 inches
dc.identifier	860-1417533253	IBSN
dc.source	http://www.amazon.com/Color-Purple-Alice-Walker/dp/0156028352/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1462125592&sr=8-1&keywords=the+color+purple+book
dc.language	en-USA
dc.relation	The Color Purple by Alice Walker, originally published by Mariner Books, 1982
dc.rights	All Rights Reserved

The Color Purple by Alice Walker, published in 1982, is told in a series of letters. It won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and The National Book Award for Fiction.The story begins in the early 1900s in rural Georgia, and covers about 30 years.

The first two sentences in the book are, “You better not never tell nobody but God. It’d kill your mammy”.

Then begins fourteen-year-old Celie’s letters to God. She tells him she’s always been a good girl, and asks for a sign to let her know what is happening to her.

As she tells her story to God, we learn that she is raped repeatedly by the man she believes to be her father. She has had two babies by him, a girl and a boy. Both babies were taken from her shortly after birth, and Celie believes that her her “Pa” killed the first one, and maybe sold the second one.

Celie’s mother asks who the father of the first one is. Celie tells her it’s God. Her mother dies before the second baby is born. Celie begins to worry about her younger sister, Nettie, when she sees Pa’s growing interest in her. An older man with four children, whose wife is dead, wants to marry her, but Pa won’t hear of it. He offers Celie instead, and a cow to go along with her if the man will agree to take her.

It takes him a few months to make up his mind, but he finally decides he will take Celie. They marry, and she puts up with his bad treatment of her without complaint.

The Color Purple has plenty of critics. It’s often targeted by censors for its “troubling ideas about race relations”, “man’s relationship to God”, African history, human sexuality, extreme and graphic violence, offensive language, and “unsuited to age group”.

The Color Purple. Retrieved 01 May 2016 from http://www.favorite-banned-books.com/the-color-purple.html

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Published on April 26, 2016May 5, 2016 by bannedbooksprojectblog1 Comment

Element	Value	Value Standard
dc.title	Lolita
dc.creator	Nabokov, Vladimir, 1869-1922
dc.subject	Pedophilia	LCSH
dc.description	A middle-aged professor becomes sexually obsessed with a twelve-year-old girl.
dc.publisher	Vintage International
dc.contributor	Vladimir Nabokov
dc.date	03-13-1989	W3CDTF
dc.type	Text	DCMIType
dc.format	Softcover book, 317 pages, 5.1 x 0.7 x 7.9 in.
dc.identifier	ISBN-13 978-0679723165
dc.source	http://www.amazon.com/Lolita-Vladimir-Nabokov/dp/0679723161/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1461604470&sr=8-1&keywords=lolita
dc.language	en-US	RFC4646
dc.relation	Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov; originally published by Olympia Press, Paris: 1955
dc.coverage	1955-1989
dc.rights	All rights reserved

Lolita is the story of Humbert Humbert, a middle-aged professor of literature who becomes lustfully obsessed with twelve-year-old Dolores Haze, eventually marrying her mother and becoming her stepfather. Nabokov’s novel, written in English and published in Paris in 1955, was later banned in France until 1958 for being “a dangerous book” (Cornell University Library). It was also banned in England, Australia, Burma, Belgium, and Austria.

Works citd: “Publishing Lolita.” Cornell Celebrates the 50^th Anniversary of Nabokov’s Lolita. Cornell University Library, 2005. Web. 25 Apr. 2016. http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/lolita/publishing/