"Outside a dog a book is man's best friend, inside a dog it is too dark to read!" -Groucho Marx========="The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid." -Jane Austen========="I don’t believe in the kind of magic in my books. But I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book."-JK Rowling========"I spend a lot of time reading." -Bill Gates=========“Ahhh. Bed, book, kitten, sandwich. All one needed in life, really.” -Jacqueline Kelly=========

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Mark Twain on Book Banning

When Huck Finn came under fire and was banned by the Omaha Public Library in 1902, Mark Twain said this in response:

     "Dear Sir, Your telegram has arrived, but I have already said all I want to say concerning Huck Finn's new adventures, there is no need to say it again...I am tearfully afraid this noise is doing much harm. It has started a number of hitherto spotless people to reading Huck Finn, out of a natural human curiosity to learn what this is all about---people who had not heard of him before; people who will go to wreck and ruin now. The publishers are glad, but it makes me want to borrow a handkerchief and cry. I should be sorry to think it is the publishers themselves that got up this little flutter to enable them to unload a book that has been taking up much room in their cellars..."    NY Times September, 6, 1902 (View the original article here.)

I truly believe that Mark Twain was on to something.  Why else would books like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), Catcher in the Rye (1951), The Chocolate War (1974), Slaughterhouse Five (1969), and The Color Purple (1982) still be attracting attention decades after they were first published?

Margaret Atwood in her novel The Blind Assassin said, "There's nothing like a shovelful of dirt to encourage literacy."

Bring on the dirt!

Think for yourself and let others do the same.  Read a banned book this week.

3 comments:

  1. My copy of Mockingjay finally came in so I'm reading that, as well as James Lee Burke's latest mystery. I don't know if you've read anything by him, but he's amazing!(although his books can be depressing since they are set in New Orleans)

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  2. Grief, I never realised I had read so many banned books - of the six books you mention it is only Slaughterhouse Five that I have not read.

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  3. Thanks for dropping by for the hop. I think banning books is the most closed minded idea. I love your Mark Twain quote and I will definitely read a banned book this week! Have a great weekend.

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