IRIS Photos

Cornellians and Banned Books

Anne Kenney

banned booksCUL recently honored the twenty-fifth anniversary of Banned Books Week—a nationwide initiative to help people celebrate the freedom to read from a broad range of possibilities. This freedom stems from the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Threats against reading materials occur regularly and come from both the left and the right and all points in between. The top three reasons for challenging books are their being “sexually explicit,” containing “offensive language,” and being “unsuited to age group.” Over the years, works by Cornell authors Toni Morrison, Vladimir Nabokov, Kurt Vonnegut, and E. B. White have come under attack. Five of their books are among the top forty-two of the 100 best novels of the twentiety century that have been challenged or banned. And this year’s Reading Project choice, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is also on that list.

We asked various Cornell faculty members, librarians, administrators, and students to choose a favorite banned book and tell us something about their choice. Their responses helped shape a display in Olin Library during Banned Books week and are reproduced in the exhibit brochure, which was designed by Rachel Brill and Tiffany Howe. Randy Wayne, an associate professor of plant biology, was inspired to contribute an essay, “Profiles in Courage in Medical Science,” in which he describes the impact that censorship has had on medical procedures.

In tandem with the exhibit, we solicited comments from those who viewed it. Forty-one people responded. Books ranging from the Bible to The Satanic Verses were mentioned. One viewer wrote that To Kill a Mockingbird had “saved and transformed my life.” (The book had also been chosen by two Cornellians in the display). Many viewers expressed surprise to learn that such books as Winnie the Pooh had been banned. “Beyond the shock value of the display,” one viewer noted, “I’d be interested in knowing by what and where they were banned.” (The American Libraries Associate maintains a wonderful Web site on banned books, including the reasons for censorship.) Another person commented, “Just because some fool banned it does not make it good.” One of the last comments came from someone, who, I’m guessing, hails from California: “Whoever bans books should just, like, stop now.”

Other library-sponsored Banned Book Week events included a Speak Out, co-sponsored with the Cornell American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on September 28 at Ho Plaza, and an exhibition in the Severinghaus Reading Room of Kroch Library on books banned in Asia during the twentieth century.