Part 2: Bannings and Burnings in History

Hi Everyone!

This is the remainder of the long selective list I found by Freedom to Read. It’s amazing the reasons for banning or destroying writings.

Bannings and Burnings in History

Some of the most controversial books in history are now regarded as classics. The Bible and works by Shakespeare are among those that have been banned over the past two thousand years. Here is [part two of] a selective timeline of book bannings, burnings, and other censorship activities.

1960: D.H. Lawrence’s novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover was the subject of a trial in England, in which Penguin Books was prosecuted for publishing an obscene book. During the proceedings, the prosecutor asked: “Is it a book you would wish your wife or servant to read?” Penguin won the case, and the book was allowed to be sold in England. A year earlier, the U.S. Post Office had declared the novel obscene and non-mailable. But a federal judge overturned the Post Office’s decision and questioned the right of the postmaster general to decide what was or was not obscene.

1970: White Niggers of America, a political tract about Quebec politics and society, was written by Pierre Vallières while he was in jail. The book was confiscated when the writer was accused of sedition, and an edition published in France was not allowed into Canada. A U.S. edition was published in English in 1971.

1973: The school board in Drake, North Dakota, ordered the burning of 32 copies of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five and 60 copies of James Dickey’s Deliverance for, respectively, the use of profanity and references to homosexuality.

1974: The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence revealed some of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency’s dirty tricks and failures overseas and in the United States. The authors (Victor Marchetti, a former senior analyst for the CIA, and John D. Marks, a former U.S. State Department official) were told by a U.S. court to submit their manuscript to the CIA before the book was published. The CIA demanded the removal of 339 passages from the text, but eventually the publisher won the right to retain 171 of those in the first edition of the book. By 1980, the publisher had won the legal right to publish 25 more passages, but the most recent edition (1989) still indicated numerous censored passages.

1977: Maurice Sendak’s picture book In the Night Kitchen was removed from the Norridge, Illinois, school library because of “nudity to no purpose.” The book was expurgated elsewhere when shorts were drawn on the nude boy.

1977: Decent Interval, a memoir written by a former CIA employee, criticized the CIA, Henry Kissinger, and U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. Author Frank Snepp succeeded in getting his book published before the CIA knew about it, but the government filed a lawsuit against him, even though no classified information appeared in the book. In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Snepp; the government seized all profits from the book and imposed a lifelong gag order on the author. Snepp was required to submit everything he might write—fiction, screenplays, non-fiction, poetry—to the CIA for review. The CIA won the right to cut any classified or classifiable information within 30 days of receipt of Snepp’s work.

1983: Members of the Alabama State Textbook Committee called for the rejection of The Diary of Anne Frank because it was “a real downer.” It was also challenged for offensive references to sexuality.

1987: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou was removed from the required reading list for Wake County, North Carolina, high school students because of a scene in which the author, at the age of seven and a half, is raped.

1987: After retiring from 20 years’ service with Britain’s MI5 counterintelligence agency, Peter Wright moved to Australia and wrote his autobiography, entitled Spycatcher, in which he accused British security services of trying to topple Harold Wilson’s 1974–76 Labour government. The book, a best-seller, was banned in Britain, and the British government waged a lengthy and expensive legal battle to prevent its publication in Australia. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said that if Wright ever returned to Britain, he would be prosecuted for breaching the country’s Official Secrets Act. But when Wright died in 1995, he got the last laugh, since his ashes were scattered over the waters of the Blackwater Sailing Club in southern England.

1988: Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses, which some critics said blasphemed Islam, was burned repeatedly by Muslims in the United Kingdom. In October, India—a majority Hindu nation which has a minority Muslim population—became the first of several countries in the world to ban the novel. (In 2012, Indian writers called for the ban’s repeal.) The Republic of South Africa also banned the novel in 1988, although the government lifted this ban in 2002.

1992: In August, during the Bosnian war, Serbian troops shelled the National Library in Sarajevo. They destroyed between 1.5 million and 3 million volumes. It was one of the worst book burnings in modern history. Soldiers shot at anyone who tried to save the books.

1997: In Ireland, a government censorship board banned at least 24 books and 90 periodicals.

1998: In Kenya, the government banned 30 books and publications for “sedition and immorality,” including The Quotations of Chairman Mao and Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses.

1998: American publishers expressed outrage over news that a Washington bookstore was ordered to turn over records of Monica Lewinsky’s book purchases to independent counsel Kenneth Starr. Lewinsky is the former White House intern with whom President Clinton had what he later termed an “inappropriate relationship.” The Association of American Publishers
declared: “I don’t think the American people could find anything more alien to our way of life or repugnant to the Bill of Rights than government intrusion into what we think and what we read. I would suggest Mr. Starr give some thought to his own reading list. Maybe it’s time for him to re-read the First Amendment.”

2001: The U.S.A. PATRIOT Act, passed by the American Congress in response to terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on September 11, gave the FBI power to collect information about the library borrowings of any U.S. citizen. The act also empowered the federal agency to gain access to library patrons’ log-ons to Internet Web sites—and protected the FBI from disclosing the identities of individuals being investigated.

2010: In India, nationalist students burned copies of Such a Long Journey, Rohinton Mistry’s acclaimed novel, at the gates of the University of Mumbai. The students also pressed the university to stop teaching the book. Aditya Thackeray, the students’ leader, said he objected to the “obscene and vulgar language” in the novel and to negative references to India’s nationalist
politicians, including his grandfather. The university quickly dropped the novel from the syllabus.

2010: The U.S. Department of Defense bought and destroyed the entire first printing—9,500 copies—of Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer’s Operation Dark Heart. The book focused on the war in Afghanistan. Even though Shaffer had worked closely with military officials when he was writing the manuscript, some feared that the book would reveal military secrets. Shaffer’s
publisher, St. Martin’s Press, did release a second printing, but it featured cuts and changes that the U.S. Department of Defense had ordered.

2011: In June, Canadian author Lawrence Hill received an email from a man in the Netherlands who said that he and others planned to burn Hill’s novel The Book of Negroes because they objected to the N-word in the title. On June 22, they burned copies of the book’s cover in Amsterdam. Two years later, Hill published another work: Dear Sir, I Intend to Burn Your Book:
An Anatomy of a Book Burning.

2012: In May, Irshad Manji—a reform-minded Muslim—toured Malaysia to promote her book Allah, Liberty and Love. In Kuala Lumpur, government officials raided bookstores to confiscate copies of the book. Then, after receiving a critical report from the Department of Islamic Development, Malaysia’s Ministry of Home Affairs banned the book. Manji protested the ban, and her Malaysian publisher challenged the ban in court.

2012: In the United States, people demanded the removal of Toni Morrison’s Beloved from public library shelves. Complainants claimed the novel was sexually explicit, and they objected to depictions of violence and the novel’s religious viewpoint, reported the American Library Association (ALA). The novel, which was published in 1987, explores the destructive legacy of slavery in 19th-century America. The ALA also reported that Morrison’s novel was the 26th most frequently challenged book from 2000 to 2009 and the 45th most frequently challenged book from 1990 to 1999 in U.S. public libraries.

2013: Islamist insurgents in the African nation of Mali set fire to a library in Timbuktu and incinerated 4,000 ancient manuscripts. The damage would have been worse, but a quick-thinking librarian had organized the removal of hundreds of thousands of manuscripts to safety.

2013: In Pakistan, spokesmen for organizations that represent the nation’s private schools announced bans on I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban. In November, Adeeb Javedani, president of the All Pakistan Private Schools Management Association, said that a ban was in force in the libraries of 40,000 affiliated schools. Kashif Mirza, chairman of the All Pakistan Private Schools Federation, said a ban was in force in its affiliated schools. Senior education officials said the book—which was co-authored by Malala Yousafzai and Christina Lamb—showed insufficient respect for Islam.

2016: In northern Russia, the Vorkuta Mining and Economics College burned 53 books, including textbooks about logic, French surrealism, and criminology. A spokesperson said they were full of ideas “alien to Russian ideology.” A Western foundation created by George Soros, the billionaire financier and philanthropist, had provided the money to publish the books. The college also seized another 427 books for shredding.

2019: In the United States, people demanded the removal of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series from public libraries. Complainants objected to depictions of magic, witchcraft, and “actual curses and spells” in the text. They also disliked the characters’ use of “nefarious means” to achieve their goals, reported the American Library Association (ALA). The fantasy novels— there are seven in all—chronicle the lives of students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The ALA also reported that Harry Potter books were the most frequently challenged in U.S. public libraries from 2000 to 2009.

2019: In the United States, people demanded the removal of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale from public library shelves. Complainants objected to profanity and “vulgarity and sexual overtones” in the text, reported the American Library Association (ALA). The novel, which was published in 1985, depicts a future Christian theocracy in the southern half of North
America. The ALA also reported that Atwood’s novel was the 88th most frequently challenged book from 2000 to 2009 and the 37th most frequently challenged book from 1990 to 1999 in U.S. public libraries.

What do you think of this second part of the list? Any which you are in agreement with, or disagree with the decision? Do you agree with censorship of books?

My previous post was part one of the list.

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

Part 1: Bannings and Burnings in History

Hi Everyone!

I’m amazed that here it is the last few days of February and I hadn’t posted yet this month! I don’t know how the month escaped so quickly.

This is the last day of Freedom to Read Week that is Feb. 19-25 this year, and yesterday I read this list compiled (by Freedom to Read) which I am posting in two parts for you. I find it to be very interesting, and containing puzzling, tragic, and even some laughable decisions.

Bannings and Burnings in History

Some of the most controversial books in history are now regarded as classics. The Bible and works by Shakespeare are among those that have been banned over the past two thousand years. Here is [part one of] a selective timeline of book bannings, burnings, and other censorship activities.

259–210 B.C.: The Chinese emperor Shih Huang Ti is said to have buried alive 460 Confucian scholars to control the writing of history in his time. In 212 B.C., he burned all the books in his kingdom, retaining only a single copy of each for the Royal Library—and those were destroyed before his death. With all previous historical records destroyed, he thought history could be said to begin with him.

A.D. 8: The Roman poet Ovid was banished from Rome for writing Ars Amatoria (The Art of Love). He died in exile in Greece eight years later. All Ovid’s works were burned by Savonarola in Florence in 1497, and an English translation of Ars Amatoria was banned by U.S. Customs in 1928.

35: The Roman emperor Caligula opposed the reading of The Odyssey by Homer, written more than 300 years before. He thought the epic poem was dangerous because it expressed Greek ideas of freedom.

640: According to legend, the caliph Omar burned all 200,000 volumes in the library at Alexandria in Egypt. In doing so, he said: “If these writings of the Greeks agree with the Book of God they are useless and need not be preserved; if they disagree, they are pernicious and ought to be destroyed.” In burning the books, the caliph provided six months’ fuel to warm the city’s
baths.

1497–98: Savonarola, a Florentine religious fanatic with a large following, was one of the most notorious and powerful of all censors. In these years, he instigated great “bonfires of the vanities” which destroyed books and paintings by some of the greatest artists of Florence. He persuaded the artists themselves to bring their works—including drawings of nudes—to the
bonfires. Some poets decided they should no longer write in verse because they were persuaded that their lines were wicked and impure. Popular songs were denounced, and some were turned into hymns with new pious lyrics. Ironically, in May of 1498 another great bonfire was lit—this time under Savonarola who hung from a cross. With him were burned all his writings, sermons, essays, and pamphlets.

1524–26: Thousands of copies of William Tyndale’s English translation of the New Testament were printed in Germany and smuggled into England, where they were publicly burned in 1526 on the orders of London’s Roman Catholic bishop. Church authorities in England insisted that the Bible would be available only in Latin and that only they would be able to read and interpret it. In 1536, as a result of a plot masterminded by the English, Tyndale was arrested in Belgium, tried for heresy, and strangled and burned at the stake near Brussels. A few of his translations were burned with him. Today, only three original copies of Tyndale’s New Testament survive.

1559: For hundreds of years, the Roman Catholic Church listed books that were prohibited to its members; but in this year, Pope Paul IV established the Index Librorum Prohibitorum. For more than 400 years this was the definitive list of books that Roman Catholics were told not to read. It was one of the most powerful censorship tools in the world.

1597: The original version of Shakespeare’s Richard II contained a scene in which the king was deposed from his throne. Queen Elizabeth I was so angry that she ordered the scene removed from all copies of the play.

1614: Sir Walter Raleigh’s book The History of the World was banned by King James I of England for “being too saucy in censuring princes.”

1624: Martin Luther’s German translation of the Bible was burnt in Germany by order of the Pope.

1616–42: Galileo’s theories about the solar system and his support of the discoveries of Copernicus were condemned by the Catholic Church. Under threat of torture, and sentenced to jail at the age of 70, the great scientist was forced to renounce what he knew to be true. On his death, his widow agreed to destroy some of his manuscripts.

1720: Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe was placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum by the Spanish Catholic Church.

1744: Sorrows of Young Werther by the famed German author Goethe was published in this year and soon became popular throughout Europe. The book was a short novel, in diary form, in which a young man writes of his sufferings from a failed love affair. The final chapter of the book drops the diary form and graphically depicts Werther’s suicide. Because a number of
copycat suicides followed the publication of the book, the Lutheran church condemned the novel as immoral; then governments in Italy, Denmark, and Germany banned the book. Two hundred years later an American sociologist, David Phillips, wrote about the effect of reporting suicides in The Werther Effect.

1788: Shakespeare’s King Lear was banned from the stage until 1820—in deference to the insanity of the reigning monarch, King George III.

1807: In Paris, French police entered the room in the asylum where the Marquis de Sade was imprisoned and seized several of his manuscripts, including the manuscript of his latest novel, The Days at Florbelle. The police claimed that the notorious libertine’s novel was blasphemous and obscene, and Sade never saw it again. After Sade died in 1814, his younger son, anxious to restore the Sade family’s name, asked the Ministry of Justice to burn The Days at Florbelle and any other manuscript like it. The authorities obliged. But one police officer saved one notebook: it outlined the story and briefly described a few characters and incidents.

1807: Dr. Thomas Bowdler quietly brought out the first of his revised editions of Shakespeare’s plays. The preface claimed that he had removed from Shakespeare “everything that can raise a blush on the cheek of modesty”—which amounted to about 10 per cent of the playwright’s text. One hundred and fifty years later, it was discovered that the real excision had been done by Dr. Bowdler’s sister, Henrietta Maria. The word “bowdlerize” became part of the English language.

1843: The English Parliament updated an act that required all plays to be performed in England to be submitted for approval to the Lord Chamberlain. Despite objections by illustrious figures such as George Bernard Shaw (in 1909), this power remained with the Lord Chamberlain until 1968.

1859: Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species was published, outlining the theory of evolution. The book was banned from the library of Trinity College, Cambridge, where Darwin had been a student. In 1925, Tennessee banned the teaching of the theory of evolution in schools; the law remained in force until 1967. The Origin of Species was banned in Yugoslavia in 1935 and in
Greece in 1937.

1859: George Eliot’s novel Adam Bede was attacked as the “vile outpourings of a lewd woman’s mind,” and the book was withdrawn from circulation libraries in Britain.

1864–1959: Victor Hugo’s novel Les Misérables was placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum.

1881: Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass (published in 1833) was threatened with banning by Boston’s district attorney unless the book was expurgated. The public uproar brought such sales of his books that Whitman was able to buy a house with the proceeds.

1885: A year after the publication of Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, the library of Concord, Massachusetts, decided to exclude the book from its collection. The committee making the decision said the book was “rough, coarse and inelegant, dealing with a series of experiences not elevating, the whole book being more suited to the slums than to intelligent, respectable people.” By 1907, it was said that Twain’s novel had been thrown out of some library somewhere every year, mostly because its hero was said to present a bad example for impressionable young readers.

1927: A translation of The Arabian Nights by the French scholar Mardrus was held up by U.S. Customs. Four years later another translation, by Sir Richard Burton, was allowed into the country, but the ban on the Mardrus version was maintained.

1929: Jack London’s popular novel Call of the Wild was banned in Italy and Yugoslavia. In 1932, copies of this and other books by London were burned by the Nazis in Germany.

1929: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was banned in the Soviet Union because of “occultism.”

1929–62: Novels by Ernest Hemingway were banned in various parts of the world such as Italy, Ireland, and Germany (where they were burned by the Nazis). In California in 1960, The Sun Also Rises was banned from schools in San Jose and all of Hemingway’s works were removed from Riverside school libraries. In 1962, a group called Texans for America opposed textbooks that referred students to books by the Nobel Prize-winning author.

1931: Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll was banned by the governor of Hunan province in China because, he said, animals should not use human language and it was disastrous to put animals and humans on the same level.

1932: In a letter to an American publisher, James Joyce said that “some very kind person” bought the entire first edition of Dubliners and had it burnt.

1933: A series of massive bonfires in Nazi Germany burned thousands of books written by Jews, communists, and others. Included were the works of John Dos Passos, Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Ernest Hemingway, Helen Keller, Lenin, Jack London, Thomas Mann, Karl Marx, Erich Maria Remarque, Upton Sinclair, Stalin, and Leon Trotsky.

1937: The Quebec government passed An Act Respecting Communistic Propaganda, popularly known as the Padlock Act. The statute empowered the attorney general to close, for up to one year, any building that was used to disseminate “communism or bolshevism.” (These two terms were undefined.) In addition, the act empowered the attorney general to confiscate and destroy any publication propagating communism or bolshevism. Anyone caught publishing, printing, or distributing such literature faced imprisonment for up to one year without appeal. In 1957, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the Padlock Act in a case called Switzman vs. Elbling. The court said that the act made the propagation of communism a crime; however, the court’s reason for striking down the law had less to do with the evils of censorship than with the division of powers between federal and provincial governments. The court declared that the power to pass criminal law belonged exclusively to Ottawa, so Quebec’s Padlock Act was ultra vires and unconstitutional. Only two justices raised the issue of censorship in this case.

1953: The Irish government banned Anatole France’s A Mummer’s Tale (for “immorality”), Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises and Across the River and Into the Trees (for “immorality”), all the works of John Steinbeck (for “subversion” and “immorality”), all the works of Emile Zola (for “immorality”), and most works by William Faulkner (for “immorality”).

1954: Mickey Mouse comics were banned in East Berlin because Mickey was said to be an “anti-Red rebel.”

1959: After protests by the White Citizens’ Council, The Rabbits’ Wedding, a picture book for children, was put on the reserved shelf in Alabama public libraries because it was thought to promote racial integration.

That’s all for this time and I will follow up with part 2 in a couple of days.

What do you think of this list? Any you agree with, or strongly disagree?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

Daddy Come Home video

This video touches me every time I watch it. Beautiful.

Enjoy!

Thanks for coming by, and … Creative Musings! Lynn

One Nonfiction Bestseller of each year from 1900-1999

Hello Everyone!

This time I have chosen one bestseller from each year of 1900 to 1999 in the Nonfiction genre, although you will notice that for fifteen of those years there were no nonfiction books mentioned for me to add. What I found was books published that were “critically acclaimed and historically significant.” I might post those another time. If you know of any nonfiction bestsellers for those missing fifteen years, please post in the comments.

For two years there was a War Nonfiction Bestseller list from which I have chosen and added here. Also, in the case of a specific book continuing to be on the Bestsellers’ list in other years, I have included an additional book in that same year.

1900-1911- none

1912: The Promised Land by Mary Antin

1913: Crowds by Gerald Stanley Lee

1914 – 1916: none

1917 & 1918: Rhymes of a Red Cross Man by Robert W. Service;

1917: War Nonfiction Bestseller: The First Hundred Thousand by Ian Hay

1918: Treasury of War Poetry by G.H. Clark;

1918: War Nonfiction Bestseller: My Four Years in Germany by James W. Gerard

1919: The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams

1920: Now It Can Be Told by Philip Gibbs

1921 & 1922: The Outline of History by H.G. Wells

1922: The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem Van Loon

1923: Etiquette by Emily Post

1924 – 1926: Diet and Health by Lulu Hunt Peters

1925 & 1926: The Boston Cooking School Cook Book by Fannie Farmer, ed.

1926: The Man Nobody Knows by Bruce Barton

1927: The Story of Philosophy by Will Durant

1928: Disraeli by Andre’ Maurois

1929: The Art of Thinking by Ernest Dimnet

1930 & 1931: The Story of San Michele by Axel Munthe

1931: Education of a Princess by Grand Duchess Marie

1932: The Epic of America by James Truslow Adams

1933 & 1934: Life Begins at Forty by Walter B. Pitkin

1934 & 1935: While Rome Burns by Alexander Woollcott

1935 & 1936: North to the Orient by Anne Morrow Lindbergh

1936: Man the Unknown by Alexis Carrell

1937 & 1938: How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

1938: The Importance of Living by Lin Yutang

1939 & 1940: Days of Our Years by Pierre Van Paasen

1940: I Married Adventure by Osa Johnson

1941: Berlin Diary by William L. Shirer

1942 & 1943: See Here, Private Hargrove by Marion Hargrove

1943 & 1944:Under Cover by John Roy Carlson

1944: I Never Left Home by Bob Hope

1945: Brave Men by Ernie Pyle

1946, 1945 & 1947: The Egg and I by Betty MacDonald

1947 & 1948: Peace of Mind by Joshua L. Liebman

1948: Crusade in Europe by Dwight D. Eisenhower

1949: White Collar Zoo by Clare Barnes Jr.

1950 & 1951: Betty Crocker’s Picture Cook Book

1951: Look Younger, Live Longer by Gayelord Hauser

1952 – 1954: The Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version

1953 – 1955: The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale

1954: Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book

1955: Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindberg

1956: Arthritis and Common Sense, rev. ed. by Dan Dale Alexander

1957 & 1958: Kids Say the Darndest Things! by Art Linkletter

1958 & 1959: Twixt Twelve and Twenty by Pat Boone

1959 & 1960: Folk Medicine by D.C. Jarvis

1960: Better Homes and Gardens First Aid for Your Family

1961 & 1962: The New English Bible: The New Testament

1962 & 1961: Calories Don’t Count by Dr. Herman Taller

1963 & 1962: Happiness Is a Warm Puppy by Charles M. Schulz

1964: Four Days by American Heritage and United Press International

1965: How To Be a Jewish Mother by Dan Greenburg

1966: How to Avoid Probate by Norman F. Dacey

1967: Death of a President by William Manchester

1968: Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book

1969 & 1970: American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language by William Morris, ed.

1970: Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex but Were Afraid To Ask by David Reuben

1971: The Sensous Man by “M”

1972 & 1973: The Living Bible by Kenneth Taylor

1973: Dr. Atkins’ Diet Revolution by Robert C. Atkins

1974: The Total Woman by Marabel Morgan

1975 & 1976: Angels: God’s Secret Agents by Billy Graham

1976: The Final Days by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein

1977 & 1976: Roots by Alex Haley

1978: If Life Is a Bowl of Cherries, What Am I Doing in the Pits? by Erma Bombeck

1979: Aunt Erma’s Cope Book by Erma Bombeck

1980: Crisis Investing: Opportunities and Profits in the Coming Great Depression by Douglas R. Casey

1981: The Beverly Hills Diet by Judy Mazel

1982 & 1983: Jane Fonda’s Workout Book by Jane Fonda

1983: In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best-Run Companies by Thomas J. Peters and Robert H. Waterman Jr.

1984 & 1985: Iacocca: An Autobiography by Lee Iacocca with William Novak

1985: Yeager: An Autobiography by Gen. Chuck Yeager and Leo Janos

1986: Fatherhood by Bill Cosby

1987: Time Flies by Bill Cosby

1988: The 8-Week Cholesterol Cure by Robert E. Kowalski

1989: All I Really Need To Know I Learned in Kindergarten: Uncommon Thoughts on Common Things by Robert Fulghum

1990: A Life on the Road by Charles Kuralt

1991: Me: Stories of My Life by Katharine Hepburn

1992: The Way Things Ought To Be by Rush Limbaugh

1993: See, I Told You So by Rush Limbaugh

1994: In the Kitchen with Rosie by Rosie Daley

1995 (1993 – 1997): Men Are from Mars, Women are From Venus by John Gray

1996: Make the Connection by Oprah Winfrey, and Bob Greene Hyperion

1997: Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt

1998: The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom by Suze Orman

1999 & 1998: Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom

I hadn’t heard of most of the above 87 bestsellers, and I can remember reading only 6 of the ones that I recognized: The Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version; Roots; If Life Is a Bowl of Cherries, What Am I Doing in the Pits?; Aunt Erma’s Cope Book; Angela’s Ashes; Tuesdays with Morrie; and some of Men Are from Mars, Women are From Venus. One I have had on my to-read list for some time is The Egg and I.

I found it fascinating how interests changed during times of war, including the few years before and after.

How did you do this time? How many have you read, and are there any you would now like to find to enjoy?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! – Lynn

One Fiction Bestseller of each year from 1900 to 1999

Hello Everyone!

I have chosen one popular book from each year of 1900 to 1999, and there were many I did not include but might another time. Note: Winston Churchill on this list is the American novelist, not the British prime minister – although Sir Winston Churchill was a prolific writer and received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953.

Many of these I had not known of and only a few I have read.

1900: To Have and To Hold by Mary Johnston
1901: The Crisis by Winston Churchill
1902: The Virginian by Owen Wister
1903: Lady Rose’s Daughter by Mary Augusta Ward
1904: The Crossing by Winston Churchill
1905: The Marriage of William Ashe by Mary Augusta Ward
1906: Coniston by Winston Churchill
1907: The Lady of the Decoration by Frances Little
1908: Mr. Crewe’s Career by Winston Churchill
1909: The Inner Shrine by Basil King
1910: The Rosary by Florence Barclay
1911: The Broad Highway by Jeffrey Farnol
1912: The Harvester by Gene Stratton Porter
1913: The Inside of the Cup by Winston Churchill
1914: The Eyes of the World by Harold Bell Wright
1915: The Turmoil by Booth Tarkington
1916: Seventeen by Booth Tarkington
1917: Mr. Britling Sees It Through by H.G. Wells
1918: The U.P. Trail by Zane Grey
1919: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse by V. Blasco Ibanez
1920: The Man of the Forest by Zane Grey
1921: Main Street by Sinclair Lewis
1922: If Winter Comes by A.S.M. Hutchison
1923: Black Oxen by Gertrude Atherton
1924: So Big by Edna Ferber
1925: Soundings by A. Hamilton Gibbs
1926: The Private Life of Helen of Troy by John Erskine
1927: Elmer Gantry by Sinclair Lewis
1928: The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder
1929: All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
1930: Cimarron by Edna Ferber
1931: The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
1932: Light in August by William Faulkner
1933: Anthony Adverse by Hervey Allen
1934: I, Claudius by Robert Graves
1935: Green Light by Lloyd C. Douglas
1936: Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
1937: Northwest Passage by Kenneth Roberts
1938: The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
1939: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
1940: How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn
1941: The Keys of the Kingdom by A.J. Cronin
1942: The Song of Bernadette by Franz Werfel
1943: The Robe by Lloyd C. Douglas
1944: Strange Fruit by Lillian Smith
1945: Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor
1946: The King’s General by Daphne du Maurier
1947: The Miracle of the Bells by Russell Janney
1948: The Big Fisherman by Lloyd C. Douglas
1949: The Egyptian by Mika Waltari
1950: The Cardinal by Henry Morton Robinson
1951: From Here to Eternity by James Jones
1952: The Silver Chalice by Thomas B. Costain
1953: The Robe by Lloyd C. Douglas
1954: Not as a Stranger by Morton Thompson
1955: Marjorie Morningstar by Herman Wouk
1956: Don’t Go Near the Water by William Brinkley
1957: By Love Possessed by James Gould Cozzens
1958: Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
1959: Exodus by Leon Uris
1960: Advise and Consent by Allen Drury
1961: The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone
1962: Ship of Fools by Katherine Anne Porter
1963: The Shoes of Fisherman by Morris L. West
1964: The Spy Who Came in From the Cold by John Le Carre
1965: The Source by James A. Michener
1966: Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann
1967: The Arrangement by Elia Kazan
1968: Airport by Arthur Hailey
1969: Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth
1970: Love Story by Erich Segal
1971: Wheels by Arthur Hailey
1972: Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach
1973: Once is Not Enough by Jacqueline Susann
1974: Centennial by James A. Michener
1975: Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow
1976: Trinity by Leon Uris
1977: The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien and Christopher Tolkien
1978: Chesapeake by James A. Michener
1979: The Matarese Circle by Robert Ludlum
1980: The Covenant by James A. Michener
1981: Noble House by James Clavell
1982: E.T. the Extraterrestrial Storybook by William Kotzwinkle
1983: Return of the Jedi Storybook by Joan D. Vinge
1984: The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub
1985: The Mammoth Hunters by Jean M. Auel
1986: It by Stephen King
1987: The Tommyknockers by Stephen King
1988: The Cardinal of the Kremlin by Tom Clancy
1989: Clear and Present Danger by Tom Clancy
1990: The Plains of Passage by Jean M. Auel
1991: Scarlett: The Sequel to Margaret Mitchell’s “Gone with the Wind” by Alexandra Ripley
1992: Dolores Claiburne by Stephen King
1993: The Bridges of Madison County by James Robert Waller
1994: The Chamber by John Grisham
1995: The Rainmaker by John Grisham
1996: The Runaway Jury by John Grisham
1997: The Partner by John Grisham
1998: The Street Lawyer by John Grisham
1999: The Testament by John Grisham

I hope you’ve done better than I. Of the 100 listed I’ve read only these 6: All Quiet on the Western Front; Gone With the Wind; The Grapes of Wrath; Doctor Zhivago; The Spy Who Came in From the Cold; Jonathan Livingston Seagull.

Of the many I have not read on the list, I think I have only two in my personal library: Ship of Fools; The Runaway Jury.

How many of the above have you read? Are there others on the list that you plan to read?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! – Lynn

Do you read banned and/or challenged books? Here are 50

Hello, Everyone!

I’ve been thinking about the banning of books again, and that there is a steady increase in the number of books people are trying to prevent others from reading. It seems to me that by this time there would be less of that instead of more.

Below I have made a list of 50 of the books I’ve read that are/were banned and/or challenged, although I not likely knew it at the time of reading. They are in no particular order.

The Holy Bible
1984 – by George Orwell
The Catcher in the Rye – by J.D. Salinger
Catch-22 – by Joseph Heller (I did not finish this one but will try again later)
The Great Gatsby – by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Brave New World – by Aldous Huxley
To Kill a Mockingbird – by Harper Lee
Of Mice and Men – by John Steinbeck
The Color Purple – by Alice Walker
Fahrenheit 451 – by Ray Bradbury
Lord of the Flies – by William Golding
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – by Ken Kesey
Animal Farm – by George Orwell
Their Eyes Were Watching God – by Zora Neale Hurston
The Bluest Eye – by Toni Morrison
Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl – by Anne Frank
Heart of Darkness – by Joseph Conrad
The Alchemist – by Paulo Coelho
The Hate U Give – by Angie Thomas
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian – by Sherman Alexie
And Tango Makes Three – by Peter Parnell & Justin Richardson (picture book)
A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo – by Jill Twiss (picture book)
I am Jazz – by Jessica Herthel (picture book)
Skippyjon Jones series – by Judy Schachner (picture books; I read four)
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – by Mark Haddon
Nasreen’s Secret School: A True Story from Afganistan – by Jeanette Winter (picture book)
The Adventures of Captain Underpants series – by Dav Pilkey (picture books; I read one)
Hunger Games series – by Suzanne Collins
Where the Wild Things Are – by Maurice Sendak (picture book)
Where the Sidewalk Ends – by Shel Silverstein
The Grapes of Wrath – by John Steinbeck
Hop on Pop – by Dr. Seuss (picture book)
The DaVinci Code – by Dan Brown
A Time to Kill – by John Grisham
Water for Elephants – by Sara Gruen
For Whom the Bell Tolls – by Ernest Hemingway
The Amazing Bone – by William Steig (picture book that received 4 honours)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – by Mark Twain
Bridge to Terabithia – by Katherine Paterson
Girl With a Pearl Earring – by Tracy Chevalier
Invisible Man – by Ralph Ellison
Gone With the Wind – by Martha Mitchell
The Call of the Wild – by Jack London
Charlotte’s Web – by E.B. White
The Lorax – by Dr. Seuss (picture book)
Harriet the Spy – by Harriet Fitzhugh
James and the Giant Peach – by Roald Dahl
The Giving Tree – by Shel Silverstein (picture book)
Something Happened in Our Town: A Child’s Story About Racial Injustice – by Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins, and Ann Hazzard (picture book)
In the Night Kitchen – by Maurice Sendak (picture book)

Almost all of the above I have no problem with, although I can’t say I enjoyed all of them.

Which of the above books have you read? Do you agree with the ban or challenge?

To your knowledge, have you read any not listed here that have been banned or challenged?

Thanks so much for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

Hello 2023! and Welcome back my friends!

It is amazing that we are into a new year and I didn’t post even once here in 2022, although I kept my books page updated. New Year, New Chance to do better.

I hope you fared better in 2022 than I did. It was a rough year, especially from summer onward. Late in July my husband suffered an at-home work accident – broken ankle in two places, and a broken tibia – fortunately on my week at home! Another good thing is that he didn’t require surgery as the bones were not moved out of place. Also, I was sick three different times, once with COVID in August. Several people in our family had COVID. How about you?

All year my dad was on the downhill slide, more than before. Alzheimer’s disease took its toll, and by summer we were dealing with marked changes which had rapidly increased. September 7 – with my sister, one of my daughters, and me beside him – at age 97, Dad passed from this world. What a change that has made for us, a difficult one to accept. I no longer live my life one week with him, then one week home, back and forth, which had been my life for 11.5 years, and I’m still finding it hard to adjust to the fact that I now live in only one house. My time is not rigidly divided. I can go through my days and weeks without planning everything around someone else’s care and well-being. It still feels strange and I sometimes have to remind myself that it’s my time. My husband and I are together a lot more, which is nice, but the sorrow creeps up on me unexpectedly, and I am finding it hard to sort out where I fit. I’m sure that will work out eventually. The photo below is of my dad and four-year-old me so long ago.

As for my writing, it is still on hold, but my reading is continuing almost every day. Oil painting is my outlet for creativity and I am considering posting photos of my paintings here … if you might be interested in seeing them? I’m thrilled to sell the occasional one, too. During the past year I didn’t get many pieces done but I hope that will pick up this year.

Last year I tried to complete the Goodreads reading challenge but missed my goal of 700, making it to 677. This year I have set my goal at 600. I have again decided to do the 52bookclub reading challenge, the idea being to read one book a week – or whatever you feel you can do. In 2022 I read 57 books for it, including some of the bonus mini-challenges, so I’m hoping I can manage this year’s new prompts. Anyone can join the group, by the way. Just go to Goodreads … community … groups, and type into the Search groups search bar “The 52 Book Club: 2023 Challenge.” Maybe I’ll see you there?

You may recall that we are grandparents of two boys. Our older grandson is 17 now, our younger one is 2, and we are expecting a little grandbaby girl this month! Yes, I am excited!

I hope to get used to posting on my blog somewhat regularly again, and I very much would love for you to leave comments and help me keep going. You are appreciated more than you realize. I’ve missed you.

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all!

Thanks for reading, and … please, let’s get back in touch! Much love, Lynn