Banned Books: Literature Suppressed on Religious Grounds [Hardcover]

Margaret Bald (Author), Ken Wachsberger (Introduction)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The aim of this four-volume set is to spotlight some 400 works that have been censored, banned, or condemned because of their political, social, religious, or sexual content. The entries, which include a summary, censorship history, and brief bibliography, range widely from Aristotle through Galileo and on up to Adolf Hitler and Judy Blume. Such well-known prohibited works as de Sade's 120 Days of Sodom, the Communist Manifesto, and Huckleberry Finn are included here, but so are many other works that are now less controversial, e.g., Milton's Areopagitica and Uncle Tom's Cabin. Some of the censorship histories are several pages long, but others are very short; Born on the Fourth of July gets only 50 words. Though most of the works are worth notice, too many describe fairly vapid objections: Fail-Safe was challenged by a school librarian who thought the book would undermine "America's confidence in their defense system." But as one might expect, many of the entries, such as the one for The Satanic Verses, are harrowing. Prepared by well-qualified scholars who have written and lectured extensively on censorship, the set is a very readable gathering of much useful information. It provides more depth and is more current than either Anne L. Haight's Banned Books (1978. 4th ed.) or ALA's Banned Books Resource Guide (1995). (Index not seen.)APeter A. Dollard, Alma Coll. Lib., Mt. Pleasant, MI
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 362 pages
• Publisher: Facts On File (April 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0816033064
• ISBN-13: 978-0816033065
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,781,489 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

My latest book is From the Sahara to Samarkand: Selected Travel Writings of Rosita Forbes, 1919-1937, published by Axios Press in September 2010. I edited and wrote a biographical introduction to this first anthology of Forbes's travel writing. She was a renowned British explorer and intrepid traveler during the years between the first and second world wars and was known as much for her glamour and charm as for her splendid adventures and the engaging and insightful books she wrote about them. In this anthology: Java, Sumatra, and China in 1919, four months exploring the Libyan desert in 1921, a failed pilgrimage to Mecca in 1922, across the Red Sea to Yemen and Asir in Arabia in 1923, to the stronghold of the brigand Raisuli in the Rif Mountains of Morocco in 1924, a thousand miles into Abyssinia in 1925, with the Foreign Legion in Morocco in 1928, and to Turkey, Iraq, Persia, Afghanistan, and Soviet Central Asia in the 1930s.

I am also the author of Banned Books: Literature Suppressed on Religious Grounds (2011, 2006, 1998), which along with three companion volumes published by Facts On File, is the leading reference work on literary censorship. I am the co-author of 120 Banned Books: Censorship Histories of World Literature (2011, 2005) and 100 Banned Books: Censorship Histories of World Literature (1999), two paperbacks drawn from the larger reference book series, which offer profiles of books in the U.S. and around the world that have been banned or targeted for censorship. 100 Banned Books has been published in seven translated editions, in China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Poland, Romania, and Russia.

I have been a freelance journalist and foreign correspondent reporting from Latin America and North Africa, research director of the National Writers Union, managing editor of World Press Review magazine, and an editorial consultant to the United Nations. I am an editor and director of publications at a social policy research organization and live with my husband, Jonathan Calvert, and two sons in Brooklyn, New York.
(Photo credit: Metin Oner)