Banned Books Week is September 21-27, 2014

Did you know that once Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, and Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird were banned from library shelves?

Help celebrate Banned Books Week (September 21-27, 2014) at the Mars Hill Library as The Friends of the Mars Hill Library host Nancy Lewis who will present a talk on Banned Books in America.  Nancy is Professor Emeritus of North Shore Community College in Massachusetts and after her retirement to the Asheville area, taught at the College for Seniors at UNCA.

Despite the First Amendment, our government, our libraries, our bookstores and our schools have a long history of banning books for many reasons: sexual explicitness, offensive language and a variety of social offenses which today usually come under the heading of offense to family values, including adultery, witchcraft and homosexuality.

A major court decision in 1961 ended book banning by the government although books are still banned by local school officials, boards in response to parent/community groups.  The American Library Association has been in the forefront of monitoring and publicizing attempts to ban books.

All who love books come on Thursday, September 25 at 1pm to the Mars Hill Library and hear the amazing stories and celebrate our freedom to read!