THE LIBRARIAN AND ME

I did not grow up in a home with a full set of encyclopedias on. In fact, if there was a set of encyclopedias they would been stacked on the floor as we didn’t own any bookcases. My reference library included the one volume Columbia encyclopedia published in 1935 by Columbia University. Stacked on that volume was Roget’s Thesaurus and Webster’s Dictionary.

The Long Branch library was halfway between the Lyceum and home. Occasionally I stopped in after school either to knock out my homework assignment, use the restroom or get a drink of water. It had long oak tables that I could spread my books and papers on brightly lit by one of green shaded lights marching down its center. More importantly the library was a quiet place (obviously), no shrieking little sisters to distract me. Much more conducive to studying and reading and writing then my little desk in the basement. Since since my homework was now finished I could go out and play when I got home.

No permission to go outside and play was granted unless accompanied by a statement “Yes, my homework is done.” This weekend, after finishing my chores on Saturday morning, the visit to the library was not optional. I had an essay, and several book reports that were due on Monday. Which in my house meant they had to be finished on Saturday. Homework was not left to the last moment in my house, it was a priority.

Once, my writing assignments were completed, I decided to poke around the to see I could find a good book to read this weekend. As I am browsing the shelves, the librarian, I believe her name was Mrs. Carlisle, suddenly appeared, looked over my shoulder and asked what grade I was in. I jumped up, I had been kneeling on the floor to see the books on the lowest shelf. Still trying to collect my thoughts I quickly answered, “Sixth grade at Star of the Sea Lyceum.” I noticed her a tight smile and scolding eyes that reminded me of my stepmother about give me a tongue lashing. I thought Oops what did I do wrong? I prepared to get chastised for doing something inappropriate. It seems what attracted her attention that I was looking at juvenile fiction books which apparently didn’t fit either my demeanor or age. She reached for her glasses hanging from silver filigree chain absently wiped them off for placing them daintily on her face. Of course, she wore glasses, she was a librarian. The frames were turquoise and flared across her face like another set of eyebrows. They reminded me of the mask the cat woman wore in Batman comics.

By this time, I am beginning to spiral into dread waiting for the scolding to begin. It never came. Even though I was in the wrong place wrong section, she must have sensed my nervousness. Her face softened as a smile began to curve her lips. The women of the 1950s – mothers, aunts, teachers and especially nuns – could sense any youthful predispositions to mischievousness with a simple look. She had sussed me out and determined that I was just another schoolboy mucking around the library. She pointed out there are more books available for someone my age and then places her hands on my shoulders turns me around and with a polite shove proceeded to give me a quick tour of young adult section of the library. As she walks she lightly swipes each book on the shelf acknowledging that each is in its proper place. she invites me to peruse their titles. “This is where you should be looking, she instructs. A bit more challenging but worth the effort.”

Mission accomplished she takes a quick turn into the reference room containing rows upon rows of encyclopedias. She remarks that in a couple years I would need to spend more time in this section doing research necessary for my classes. Not a problem for me, I was a nerd who could spend all afternoon perusing encyclopedias, starting with my favorite Columbia encyclopedia. Soon the Library Reference Room became my learning sanctuary. When she asked me if I would be in next Saturday. “Yes, I would!”, I responded. Going to the library was the best way to get out of a long day of Saturday chores. There may be leaves to be raked but leaves of pages to be read were far more important whether they were in my house are not.

Long Branch New Jersey is a relatively small city. Small enough that it seemed that in my mind everybody knew everybody. Certainly, my stepmother did. If I was messing around or playing somewhere I was not supposed to be she would know before I got back home. These were the days where there were many eyes on the street. So, I wasn’t surprised when bumped into Mrs. Carlisle while walking from the library to downtown. Afterpolitegreetings were exchanged, she asked me what book I was reading. Distracted by the rhinestones on her sunglasses that added to her mystery and style, I hesitated but admitted that I was still working my way through the Tom Swift series. I expected her to point out that there were much better books that I could be reading but I have already entered the world of science fiction and I was not going to be lured out. Her response was that it was important to be reading regardless of the subject matter because you always learned something.

My next visit to library was to return Tom Swift and his adventures, Mrs. Carlisle asked if I enjoyed these books. When I grumbled about my parents not appreciating my choice of reading material. Surprisingly she suggested I read Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues under the Sea or maybe War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells. Both of which contributed to a lifelong addiction to science-fiction books.

I will never forget Mrs Mary Carlisle. She was tall, slender, brunette hair styled in a pixie cut. She was prim and proper in the winter she typically wore houndstooth, checked or plaid pencil skirt and, a white silk blouse adorned with a gold circle pin or broach. Not to mention the silver filigree eyeglass chain. In the summer it was an understated floral cotton dress. Not a beautiful woman, but in my eyes very attractive. I liked her.

 I never did get that scolding, but now received a smiling nod upon my arrival and “Enjoy reading your books.” Upon my departure.

So, why talk about libraries today?

As you might guess from my childhood story, going to and studying at the library are one of the fondest memories I have as a young boy. I believe this is also true for the many generations growing up in the 20th century. For most of us getting a library card was a coming-of-age event. We were now deemed responsible and trusted enough to borrow a book and then return it. Libraries were part of the fabric of any community. They are quintessential element of how Americans learn and engage with their community.

 My love affair with books had begun, inspired, of course, by my crush on Mrs. Carlisle. Books inspired a future journey through the stacks of many libraries – including Catholic University of America, where I met and studied with my future wife.. Given that I was studying architecture, it was a delight to study slightly distracted by the magnificence of public architecture. I even managed to get into University of Pennsylvania law library. Not so much fun.

Libraries are historic institution now under siege. Regardless of size, they were the social foundations of any community, complementing schools, and churches in the development of their children. You attended church services to understand the relationships between good and evil, heaven and hell. You attended school, not a choice, to learn what was taught. You went to library to improve your mind in your own way. Unlike the classroom There was freedom in the library. No one made you go to library; it was your choice. If you wanted to improve yourself, it was the right choice. And that is my point. Having the choice to pick the book you want to read and take it home with you (except for the encyclopedias of course.) If it was an inappropriate choice your parents would demand “Why are you reading this?” It was the parent’ s job to arbitrate what was to be read. A book may be inappropriate given the maturity of the reader and subject matter. It may be inappropriate because it was Tom Swift in The Race To The Moon., not great learning material in my parent’s opinion. So, I was told to set the book aside until I had finished my chores and my homework. Then I could read it in whatever time was remaining (very little). They did not drive to the library to shake their finger in librarian’s face while chastising them for selecting, in their opinion, books that were unsuitable for their children.

Libraries can be an anchor in the places we live amid a rapidly shifting landscape. The public library is a place where my children interacted with kids their own age. It was where they were given space to roam and investigate. That small town library fostered my children’s development and providing a social and community meeting place.

Today there are people – primarily right-wing conservatives – that believe those choices should be made by government. And if you don’t agree with that position. They will demand that our elected officials adopt legislation that removes that choice.

Eight months into 2022, the number of attempts to ban or restrict library resources in schools, universities, and public libraries, are on track to exceed record counts from 2021, according to preliminary data released by the American Library Association (ALA). Between January 1 and August 31, 2022, ALA documented 681 attempts to ban or restrict library resources, and 1,651 unique titles were targeted. In the past, the vast majority of challenges to library resources only sought to remove or restrict a single book. Remember the public outcry about Lolita, the Catcher in the Rye, Peyton Place and Lord of the Flies?

Today, in Texas, as elsewhere, control of libraries is deeply politicized. Last October, Republican state Representative Matt Krause, then running for Texas Attorney General, sent schools statewide a letter demanding to know whether they had any books on a list of about 850 titles.

He said he was concerned about materials that “might make students feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress because of their race or sex.” The national free speech group PEN America denounced the move as targeting race, sexuality and gender.

A month later, Governor Greg Abbott called on state education officials to develop standards to prevent “pornography and other obscene content.”

Efforts to censor entire categories of books reflecting certain voices and views shows that the moral panic isn’t about kids: it’s about politics. Organizations with a political agenda are spreading lists of books they don’t like. There is a war being waged on youth in Texas right now. And education is the battlefront.

More importantly, as proven over the past year, is Republican effort to control local politics, stacking boards of education and library boards with citizens that single-mindedly hold to the views of Republicans who believe their singular opinions trump all others.

For example, the director of a Mississippi library system says a mayor is withholding $110,000 from his city’s library because LGBTQ books are on the shelves. Funding for this year was being withheld until [the library] removed what [the mayor] called ‘homosexual material’ from the library. His reasoning that he gave was that, as a Christian, he could not support that, and that he would not release funding until [the library] removed the material. (I must refrain from making any snarky remarks regarding Mississippi’s abysmal record on education.)

The move is part of a larger trend of conservatives across the country trying to limit the type of books that children are exposed to. A Pulitzer Prize-winning book about the Holocaust was recently banned by a Tennessee school district, while the Republican governors in South Carolina and Texas have called on superintendents to perform a systemic review of “inappropriate” materials in their states’ schools.

A Jason McCarty, executive director of LGBTQ advocacy group MS Capital City Pride, believes libraries should be safe spaces where people can learn about new things. “I think when we start putting our personal opinions into situations, that’s when we can go wrong,”

[Sidebar quote] – “The unprecedented number of challenges we’re seeing already this year reflects coordinated, national efforts to silence marginalized or historically underrepresented voices and deprive all of us – young people, in particular – of the chance to explore a world beyond the confines of personal experience,”

ALA President Lessa Kananiʻopua Pelayo-Lozada.

Banned books I read in high school:

¶THE CATCHER IN THE RYE, by JD Salinger

Since its publication, this title has been a favorite target of censors. In 1960, a teacher in Tulsa, OK was fired for assigning the book to an eleventh grade English class. The teacher appealed and was reinstated by the school board, but the book was removed from use  in the school.

In 1963, a delegation of parents of high school students in Columbus, OH,  asked the school board to ban the novel for being “anti-white” and “obscene.” The school  board refused the request.

Challenged as an assignment in an American literature class in Pittsgrove, NJ  (1977).  After months of controversy, the board ruled that the novel could be read in the  Advanced Placement class, but they gave parents the right to decide whether or not their  children would read it.

THE GRAPES OF WRATH, by John Steinbeck

Burned by the East St. Louis, IL Public Library (1939) and barred from the Buffalo, NY Public Library (1939) on the grounds that “vulgar words” were used. Banned in Kansas City,  MO (1939).

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, by Harper Lee

Challenged in the Vernon Verona Sherill, NY School District (1980)  as a “filthy, trashy novel.”

Challenged in the Waukegan, IL School District (1984) because the novel uses the  word “nigger.”

THE LORD OF THE FLIES, by William Golding

Challenged at the Sully Buttes, SD High School (1981). Challenged at the Owen, NC High School (1981) because the book is “demoralizing inasmuch as it implies that man is little more than an animal.”

Challenged at the Olney, TX Independent School District (1984) because of “excessive violence and bad language.” A committee of the Toronto, Canada Board of Education ruled on June 23, 1988, that the novel is “racist and recommended that it be removed from all schools.” Parents and members of the black community complained about a reference to “niggers” in the book and said it denigrates blacks.

Challenged in the Waterloo, IA schools (1992) because of profanity, lurid passages about sex, and statements defamatory to minorities, God, women and the disabled.

Challenged, but retained on the ninth-grade accelerated English reading list in Bloomfield, NY (2000).

1984, by George Orwell

Challenged in the Jackson County, FL (1981) because Orwell’s novel is “pro-communist and contained explicit sexual matter.”

 LOLITA, by Vladimir Nabokov

Banned as obscene in France (1956-1959), in England (1955-59), in Argentina (1959), and in New Zealand (1960). The South African Directorate of Publications announced on November 27, 1982, that Lolita has been taken off the banned list, eight years after a request for permission to market the novel in paperback had been refused. 

Challenged at the Marion-Levy Public Library System in Ocala, FL (2006).  The Marion County commissioners voted to have the county attorney review the novel that addresses the themes of pedophilia and incest, to determine if it meets the state law’s definition of “unsuitable for minors.”

OF MICE AND MEN, by John Steinbeck

Banned from classroom use at the Scottsboro, AL Skyline High School (1983) due to “profanity.” The Knoxville, TN School Board chairman vowed to have “filthy books” removed from Knoxville’s public schools (1984) and picked Steinbeck’s novel as the first target due to “its vulgar language.”

Challenged in the Waterloo, IA schools (1992) and the Duval County, FL public school libraries (1992) because of profanity, lurid passages about sex, and statements defamatory to minorities, God, women, and the disabled. 

Challenged at the Modesto, CA High School as recommended reading (1992) because of “offensive and racist language.” The word “nigger” appears in the book.

Retained in the Olathe, KS ninth grade curriculum (2007) despite a parent calling the novel a “worthless, profanity-riddled book” which is “derogatory towards African Americans, women, and the developmentally disabled.” 

 CATCH-22, by Joseph Heller

Challenged at the Dallas, TX Independent School District high school libraries (1974); in Snoqualmie, WA (1979) because of its several references to women as “whores.”

 BRAVE NEW WORLD, by Aldous Huxley

Banned in Ireland (1932). Removed from classrooms in Miller, MO (1980), because it makes promiscuous sex “look like fun.”

Challenged as required reading in the Corona-Norco, CA Unified School District (1993) because it is “centered around negative activity.” Specifically, parents objected that the characters’ sexual behavior directly opposed the health curriculum, which taught sexual abstinence until marriage. The book was retained, and teachers selected alternatives if students object to Huxley’s novel.

ANIMAL FARM, by George Orwell

Animal FarmA Wisconsin survey revealed in 1963 that the John Birch Society had challenged the novel’s use; it objected to the words “masses will revolt.” In 1968, the New York State English Council’s Committee on Defense Against Censorship conducted a comparable study in New York State English classrooms. Its findings identified the novel on its list of “problem books”; the reason cited was that “Orwell was a communist.”

Challenged as a required reading assignment in an advanced English class of Pulaski County High School in Somerset, KY (1987) because the book contains “profanity and a segment about masturbation.”

Challenged, but retained, in the Carroll County, MD schools (1991). Two school board members were concerned about the book’s coarse language and dialect. Banned at Central High School in Louisville, KY (1994) temporarily because the book uses profanity and questions the existence of God.

 INVISIBLE MAN, by Ralph Ellison

Excerpts banned in Butler, PA (1975).

Removed from the high school English reading list in St. Francis, WI (1975).

Retained in the Yakima, WA schools (1994) after a five-month dispute over what advanced high school students should read in the classroom. Two parents raised concerns about profanity and images of violence and sexuality in the book and requested that it be removed from the reading list. 

Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison

Song of Solomon Challenged, but retained, in the Columbus, OH schools (1993). The complainant believed that the book contains language degrading to blacks, and is sexually explicit.

Removed from required reading lists and library shelves in the Richmond County, GA. School District (1994) after a parent complained that passages from the book are “filthy and inappropriate.”

Challenged at the St. Johns County Schools in St. Augustine, FL (1995). Removed from the St. Mary’s County, MD schools’ approved text list (1998) by the superintendent, overruling a faculty committee recommendation. Complainants referred to the novel as “filth,” “trash,” and “repulsive.” 

Reinstated in the Shelby, MI school Advanced Placement English curriculum (2009), but parents are to be informed in writing and at a meeting about the book’s content.  Students not wanting to read the book can choose an alternative without academic penalty.  The superintendent had suspended the book from the curriculum.

GONE WITH THE WIND, by Margaret Mitchell

Banned from Anaheim, CA Union High School District English classrooms (1978).

Challenged in Waukegan, IL School District (1984) because the novel uses the word “nigger.”

 ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST, by Ken Kesey

Challenged in the Greeley, CO public school district (1971) as a non-required American Culture reading.

In 1974, five residents of Strongsville, OH, sued the board of education to remove the novel. Labeling it “pornographic,” they charged the novel “glorifies criminal activity, has a tendency to corrupt juveniles and contains descriptions of bestiality, bizarre violence, and torture, dismemberment, death, and human elimination.”

Challenged at the Placentia-Yorba Linda, CA Unified School District (2000) after complaints by parents stated that teachers “can choose the best books, but they keep choosing this garbage over and over again.”

SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE, by Kurt Vonnegut

Banned in Levittown, NY (1975), North Jackson, OH (1979), and Lakeland, FL (1982) because of the “book’s explicit sexual scenes, violence, and obscene language.”

Restricted to students who have parental permission at the four Racine, WI Unified District high school libraries (1986) because of “language used in the book, depictions of torture, ethnic slurs, and negative portrayals of women.”

THE CALL OF THE WILD, by Jack London

Banned in Italy (1929), Yugoslavia (1929), and burned in Nazi bonfires (1933).

THE LORD OF THE RINGS, by J.R.R. Tolkien

Burned in Alamagordo, NM (2001) outside Christ Community Church along with other Tolkien novels as satanic.

THE JUNGLE, by Upton Sinclair

Banned from public libraries in Yugoslavia (1929). Burned in the Nazi bonfires because of Sinclair’s socialist views (1933).

Banned in East Germany (1956) as inimical to communism.

Banned in South Korea (1985).

A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, by Anthony Burgess

In 1973 a bookseller in Orem, UT was arrested for selling the novel. Charges were later dropped, but the book seller was forced to close the store and relocate to another city.

Removed from Aurora, CO high school (1976) due to “objectionable” language and from high school classrooms in Westport, MA (1977) because of “objectionable” language.

IN COLD BLOOD, by Truman Capote

Banned, but later reinstated after community protests at the Windsor Forest High School in Savannah, GA (2000). The controversy began in early 1999 when a parent complained about sex, violence, and profanity in the book that was part of an Advanced Placement English Class.

A SEPARATE PEACE, by John Knowles

RUN, RABBIT, RUN, by John Updike

Banned in Ireland in 1962 because the Irish Board of Censors found the work “obscene” and “indecent,” objecting particularly to the author’s handling of the characters’ sexuality, the “explicit sex acts” and “promiscuity.” The work was officially banned from sales in Ireland until the introduction of the revised Censorship Publications Bill in 1967.