Censorart.com - Banned Books

Banned Books

Many societies have banned certain books. This is a partial list of books which have been banned.

Various scriptures have been banned (and sometimes burned) at several points in history. The Bible, the Qur'an, and other religious scriptures have all been subjected to censorship and have been banned in various cities and countries. In Medieval Europe the Roman Catholic Church created a program that lasted until 1966 to deal with dissenting printed opinion; it was called the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (index of prohibited books). Over the years many books based on the scriptures have also been banned, such as Leo Tolstoy's The Kingdom of God is Within You, which was banned in Russia for being anti-establishment.

Books deemed critical of the state or its interests are another common target for banning.

Books that deal with criminal matter have also been subjected to censorship. Small-press titles that have become infamous by being banned include The Anarchist Cookbook, E for Ecstasy, and Hit Man.

In the four-volume series Banned Books published by FactsOnFile in 1998, the volumes were divided by grounds for banning: political, religious, sexual and social. The first three are often cited together as taboo in polite conversation.

Notably, children's books that deal with death or other teenage angst or various crimes often find themselves banned perhaps because of parental worries about teenage suicide or copycat crimes. Many publications are targeted on the premise that children would be corrupted by reading them. This fear led to the creation of the Comics Code Authority in 1954.

List of Banned Books

A

Title	Author	Type of Literature	Reason
The Age of Reason	Thomas Paine	Philosophical Treatise	Banned in UK for blasphemy in the 18th Century
All Quiet on the Western Front	Erich Maria Remarque	Anti-war Novel	Banned in Nazi Germany for demoralizing and insulting the Wehrmacht.
The Anarchist Cookbook	William Powell	Guide Book	Banned outside of the US^{citation needed]} because security reasons. Sale of the book is prohibited to any one under 21.
Animal Farm	George Orwell	Political Novella	Publication delayed in UK because of anti-Stalin theme. Confiscated in Germany by Allied troops. Banned in Malaysia for religious reasons.

B

Title	Author	Type of Literature	Reason
Bible		Religious Text	Banned in Communist countries that support Atheism. Banned in Saudi Arabia for not being of the Muslim faith.
Biko	Donald Woods	Biography	Banned in South Africa for its criticism of the apartheid system and white government.
Black Beauty	Anna Sewell	Novel	Was banned in South Africa because of the use of the word 'black' in the title.^[1]
Beautiful Retard	Matthew Hansen	Novel	Banned in some US states because of its offensive title.
The Blue Lotus	Hergé	Graphic Novel	Banned in the China for its pro Kuomintang view and support.
The Book of One Thousand and One Nights		Collection	Banned in many primarily Muslim countries.

C

Title	Author	Type of Literature	Reason
Civil Disobedience	Henry David Thoreau	Essay	Removed from US libraries during McCarthyism. Banned in South Africa
The Communist Manifesto	Karl Marx	Economic Treatise	Banned in anti-Communist countries and the US during the Red Scare. Challenged in libraries for political reasons.

D

Title	Author	Type of Literature	Reason
Doctor Zhivago	Boris Pasternak	Novel	Published in Italy in 1957 it was banned within the USSR until 1988 for its criticism of the Bolsheviks Party.

F

Title	Author	Type of Literature	Reason
For Whom the Bell Tolls	Ernest Hemingway	Novel	Banned in Spain during Francisco Franco rule for its pro-Republican views.

K

Title	Author	Type of Literature	Reason
The King Never Smiles	Paul M. Handley	Biography	Banned in Thailand for its criticism of King Bhumibol Adulyadej^[2]
The Kingdom of God Is Within You	Leo Tolstoy	Religious Treatise	Banned in Czarist Russia for its Christian anarchist content.

L

Title	Author	Type of Literature	Reason
Lady Chatterley's Lover	D. H. Lawrence	Erotic Novel	Temporarily banned in the United States and UK for violation of obscenity laws. Banned in Australia.
A Light in the Attic	Shel Silverstein	Poetry Collection	Banned from libraries for encouraging children to misbehave.
Lolita	Vladimir Nabokov	Erotic Novel	Banned in Iran and Saudi Arabia for its content of pedophilia.

M

Title	Author	Type of Literature	Reason
The Malay Dilemma	Mahathir bin Mohamad	Political ideology	Banned in Malaysia for its criticism of UMNO and the May 13th Incident.
The Manchurian Candidate	Richard Condon	Political Novel	Banned in Communist states for political reason. Condemned by the American Legion.
Mein Kampf	Adolf Hitler	Political ideology	Possession and sale is illegal in Germany and Austria due to anti-Nazi laws.

N

Title	Author	Type of Literature	Reason
Nineteen Eighty-Four	George Orwell	Sci-Fi Novel	Banned in the USSR for political reasons. Accused of anti-semitism. Challenged in Florida for pro communist and sexual theme.

O

Title	Author	Type of Literature	Reason
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich	Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn	Novel	Banned in the USSR for political reasons. Author was sent into exile.

P

Title	Author	Type of Literature	Reason
The Peaceful Pill Handbook	Philip Nitschke and Fiona Stewart	Instructional manual on euthanasia	Banned in Australia for political reasons.

Q

Title	Author	Type of Literature	Reason
Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong	Mao Zedong	Collection	Banned in South Vietnam and anti-Communist nations in Asia.

R

Title	Author	Type of Literature	Reason
Rights of Man	Thomas Paine	Poltical	Banned in the UK for supporting the French Revolution. Banned in Czarist Russia after the Decembrist revolt.

S

Title	Author	Type of Literature	Reason
The Satanic Verses	Salman Rushdie	Novel	Banned in India and Muslim nations for blasphemy. Book stores refuse to sell it out of fear. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for the death of Rushdie.

T

Title	Author	Type of Literature	Reason
The Turner Diaries	William Luther Pierce	Novel	Book stores and libraries refuse to distribute it because of its racist theme. ^[3] Banned in Germany for its Nazi ideolgy theme and Pierce leadership in the American Nazi Party. Blamed for a number of hate crimes inspired by the novel including the Oklahoma City bombing. ^[4]

U

Title	Author	Type of Literature	Reason
Ulysses	James Joyce	Novel	Challenged and temporarily banned in the US for its sexual content. Ban overturned in United States v. One Book Called Ulysses.
Uncle Tom's Cabin	Harriet Beecher Stowe	Novel	Banned in the Southern States and Czarist Russia. Challenged by the NAACP for its racist portrayal of African Americans and the use of the word "Nigger". ^[5]
Understanding Islam through Hadis	Ram Swarup	Philosophical Treatise	Banned in India under 153A and 295A of the Indian Penal Code. ^[6]

W

Title	Author	Type of Literature	Reason
We	Yevgeny Zamyatin	Sci-Fi Novel	Banned in the USSR for political reason.
The Wealth of Nations	Adam Smith	Economic Treatise	Banned in the UK and France for criticizing Mercantilism. Banned in communist nations for its capitalist content.^[7]
The Well of Loneliness	Radclyffe Hall	Novel	Banned in the UK in 1928 for its lesbian theme, republished in 1949.^[8]
Winds of Change	Reza Pahlavi	Political Science	Banned in Iran for political reasons.

Z

Title	Author	Type of Literature	Reason
Zweites Buch	Adolf Hitler	Transcript	Possession and sale is illegal in Germany and Austria because of anti-Nazi laws. ^[9]