LibGuides: Banned Books Week: Classic Banned Books

Classic Books That Have Been Challenged or Banned

Classic books that have been challenged or banned elsewhere, available to read at the Thomas G. Carpenter Library.

All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren
Call Number: PS3545.A748A7 1960b

Publication Date: 1960

Reasons: immoral situations, depressing view of life
An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
Call Number: PS3507.R55A7 1948

Publication Date: 1925

Reasons: "deals with low love affairs," obscene
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Call Number: PR6029.R8A74 1946

Publication Date: 1946

Reason: communist themes, controversial political theories, opposition to Islamic values
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Call Number: PS3511.A86A8 1964

Publication Date: 1930

Reasons: abortion, profanity, questions existence of God, masturbation
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Call Number: EBook

Publication Date: 1899

Reasons: morbid, vulgar, scandalous
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Call Number: PS3563.O8749B4 1987

ISBN: 0140283404

Publication Date: 2000-01-01

Reason: violent and sexually explicit
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Call Number: PR6015.U9B7 1946

Publication Date: 1932

Reason: promiscuity, directly opposed the abstinence only health curriculum, drug use, suicide
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
Call Number: PR6045.A97B7

Publication Date: 1945

Reasons: homosexuality
The Call of the Wild by Jack London; Philip M. Parker
Call Number: UNF Online Ebooks

ISBN: 1423752864

Publication Date: 1903

Reasons: author's socialist views, animal cruelty
Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
Call Number: PS3572.O5C3 1963

Publication Date: 1963

Reasons: no official reaons but called "completely sick" and "garbage"
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Call Number: PS3558.E476C3 1990

ISBN: 0440204399

Publication Date: 1989-08-05

Reason: profane, weak depictions of America's armed forces
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
Call Number: PS3537.A426C3

ISBN: 0316769533

Publication Date: 1951-07-16

Reason: sexual references and profanity
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Call Number: PR6052.U638C5 1972

Publication Date: 1962

Reasons: profanity, violence, rape
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Call Number: PS3573.A425C6 1992

ISBN: 0151191549

Publication Date: 1992-05-22

Reason: violence, sexual explicit passages, and profanity
For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
Call Number: PS3515.E37F6 1940

Publication Date: 1940

Reasons: propaganda
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Call Number: PS3525.I972G6 1964b

Publication Date: 1964

Reasons: offensive language
Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin
Call Number: PS3552.A45G6 1963

ISBN: 0385270534

Publication Date: 1953-01-01

Reasons: rape, masturbation, violence, profanity, and degradation of women
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck; Studs Terkel (Introduction by)
Call Number: PS3537.T3234G8 1989

ISBN: 0670826383

Publication Date: 1989-04-01

Reason: The book uses the name of God and Jesus in a "vain and profane manner along with inappropriate sexual references."
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Call Number: PS3511.I9G7 2004 Copy #2

ISBN: 0743273567

Publication Date: 2004-09-30

Reason: Profanity and sexual references
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Call Number: HV6533.K3C3

Publication Date: 1966

Reasons: sex, violence, profanity
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Call Number: PS3555.L625I5

ISBN: 0679732764

Publication Date: 1952

Reasons: profanity, violence, sexual themes
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair; Ronald Gottesman (Introduction by)
Call Number: PS3537.I85J85 1986

ISBN: 0140390316

Publication Date: 1986

Reasons: communist themes, author's socialist views
Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
Call Number: PR6023.A93L2 1995

Publication Date: 1928

Reasons: promotes adultery, sexually explicit,
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Call Number: PS3527.A15L6 1955

ISBN: 0679723161

Publication Date: 1989-03-13

Reason: pedophilia, profane
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Call Number: PR6013.O35L6 1971

ISBN: 0698102193

Publication Date: 1962-09-01

Reason: profanity, racism, and sexually explicit passages
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
Call Number: PR6039.O32L6 1965

Publication Date: 1965

Reasons: satanism
The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer
Call Number: PS3525.A4152N3

Publication Date: 1948

Reasons: profanity, obscenity,
The Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
Call Number: PS3552.U75N3 1959

Publication Date: 1959

Reasons: drug use, sexually explicit acts, obscene language
Native Son by Richard Wright
Call Number: PS3545.R815N3

Publication Date: 1940

Reasons: violence, sexually explicit, profanity
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell; Julian Symons (Introduction by)
Call Number: PR6029.R8N49 1992

ISBN: 0679417397

Publication Date: 1992-11-03

Reason: communist overtones and sexually explicit
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Call Number: PS3537.T3234O3 1940

ISBN: 0822208385

Publication Date: 1937

Reason: profanity, use of God's name in vain, racial slurs, morbid
One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kessey
Call Number: PS3561.E667O5 1962

Publication Date: 1962

Reasons: sexually explicit, glorification of criminal activity, promotion of secular humanism, violence
Rabbit, Run by John Updike
Call Number: PS3571.P4R32 1970

Publication Date: 1960

Reasons: sexually explicit, obscene, promiscuity, extramarital affair, profanity
Satanic verses by Salman Rushdie
Call Number: EBook

Publication Date: 1988

Reasons: criticism of Islam, led to riots in which people died, led to threats to bookstore owners, blasphemy
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
Call Number: UNF General Collections -- PS3561.N68S4 1996

ISBN: 0684833662

Publication Date: 1996-10-01

Reason: Graphic language
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Call Number: PS3572.O5S6 2009

ISBN: 0385333846

Publication Date: 1969

Reasons: profanity, violence, sexually explicit, racial slurs, depictions of torture
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
Call Number: PS3563.O8749S6

ISBN: 0394497848

Publication Date: 1977-08-12

Reasons: sexual themes, "filth," "trash"
Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence
Call Number: PR6023.A93S6 1958

Publication Date: 1958

Reasons:
Sophie's Choise by William Styron
Call Number: PS3569.T9S67

Publication Date: 1979

Reasons: sexual explicit, drug use
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
Call Number: PS3515.E37S8 1970

ISBN: 0684102501

Publication Date: 1920-01-01

Reasons: extensive alcohol consumption, profanity, sexual themes
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Call Number: PS3515.U789T5 1998

ISBN: 0060838671

Publication Date: 2013-03-19

Reasons: profanity, sexually explicit, rape
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Call Number: PS3562.E353T6

ISBN: 0397001517

Publication Date: 1961-01-01

Reason: profanity and racial slurs
Tropic of Cancer by Henry V. Miller; Karl Shapiro (Introduction by); Anaïs Nin (Preface by)
Call Number: PS3525.I5454T7 1961

ISBN: 0802131786

Publication Date: 1934

Reasons: obscene, sexually explicit, profane
Ulysses by James Joyce
Call Number: PR6019.O9U6723 1987

Publication Date: 1961

Reason: sexually explicit
Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence
Call Number: PR6023.A93W63 1960

Publication Date: 1920

Reasons: sexual content, obscene