15 of the Most Famous ‘Banned’ Books in US History

News stories about book bans have been on the rise in recent years. Attempts to challenge books, restrict their availability in some way, or completely remove books from public school classrooms and libraries have happened in many states and school districts.

Some states have debated or passed laws about book challenges and removals — both favoring them (such as Idaho) and opposing them (such as Washington).

What exactly is a ‘banned’ book?

What constitutes a “ban” is open for debate. Banning a book from being published at all is very rare due to the First Amendment‘s strong protection against prior restraint. It would generally require that the book meet the very narrow definition of “obscenity,” which will almost certainly never be the case for any mainstream book due to the fact that a book (or any other content) cannot be obscene if it has any “serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.” But that doesn’t mean books can’t be challenged, restricted (usually based on age and/or by requiring parental permission), or made unavailable in libraries, bookstores, schools, etc.

Book challenges and bans happen for many reasons, including objections to the book’s content and dislike of an author’s personal actions or views.

For the purposes of this article, we define “banned” as: A book that has been made unavailable in its entirety by someone — at least one school, library, bookstore, etc. — other than the author. This includes cases of prior restraint, where a government body prevents the publication or distribution of a book, even if temporarily.

Book ‘bans’ and the First Amendment

The First Amendment protects speech and expression, which includes writing and reading books, from government interference. That means the government cannot prevent you from writing a book. Nor can the government prevent the public from reading one, unless that book falls into one of the categories outside the protection of the First Amendment (with obscenity being the most often cited category).

However, consistent with the First Amendment, public schools can restrict access to or outright remove books based on educational appropriateness, which is a term without specific criteria, and which also will be applied differently in distinct communities. Public libraries make similar choices to remove books or restrict access based on age appropriateness. Additionally, parents of public school students have a First Amendment right to challenge books that are being taught in classrooms or are available in libraries.

Private schools, however, can broadly remove books (or otherwise restrict access) without violating the First Amendment because the First Amendment only applies to government action.  And, like private schools, bookstores can choose to carry or not carry any book, with no First Amendment issue involved. 

Discover 15 of the most famous ‘banned’ books from throughout U.S. history

With that context in mind, here are 15 notable literary works that have been “banned” — as defined above — by public schools, libraries and other locations that sell and distribute books, as well as analysis of whether the “ban” ran afoul of the First Amendment.

1. Various Shakespeare plays including ‘The Merchant of Venice’ and ‘Twelfth Night’

William Shakespeare’s 16th and early 17th century plays have been adapted into books and taught in many junior and high school English literature classes. His works highlight both tragedy and comedy and deal with subjects still seen today, causing challenges and having the books removed from curriculum and libraries or access restricted based on sex, profane language and humor, antisemitism and suicide.

How have they been banned? In 1931, “The Merchant of Venice” was removed from high school curriculums in two New York school districts. In 1980, it was removed from schools in Midland, Michigan.

What’s the First Amendment issue?  Public schools can remove books based on educational appropriateness, and community members can use their right to petition to challenge books to have them reviewed and possibly restricted or removed.

2. ‘Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ by Mark Twain (1885)

Mark Twain might be the closest example of an American Shakespeare for how people associate his works with the country’s culture at a certain time. That culture included depictions of Black people that, today, are considered insensitive or racist by some. His “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” has been challenged in schools and removed from libraries due to “backward talking” dialect, themes of racism and slavery, and frequent use of a racial slur. That slur has been edited out of copies as well. The NAACP lodged one complaint in the 1950s for the book’s more than 200 uses of the slur.

How has it been banned? In 2022, school districts in Burbank and Santa Clarita, California, removed it from required reading lists. In 2017, it was removed from schools in Accomack County, Virginia, but the school board reinstated it a week later.

What’s the First Amendment issue?  Public schools can remove books based on educational appropriateness, and community members can use their right to petition to challenge books to have them reviewed and possibly restricted or removed.

3. ‘Ulysses’ by James Joyce (1922)

Most high school students won’t be exposed to Irish writer James Joyce’s sprawling “Ulysses” unless they’re in an advanced course. It’s mostly reserved for college English majors. It’s widely considered one of the greatest works of English-language literature of the past century. For the standards of the time, its depictions of sex and profanity were considered obscene by many people. It was first serialized as short stories in a literary magazine, then collected in book form in Paris and brought to the U.S. That’s when efforts to stop its publication began. The New York Society for the Suppression of Vice asked a court to declare the book obscene in 1920, and all distribution of the book stopped, pending the resolution of that lawsuit. The next year a New York court deemed it obscene, and no one would mail it for more than a decade.

In 1933, Random House tried to import copies of the book, specifically for the purpose of testing whether it was still considered obscene. The federal government went to court, but a federal district court judge ruled in 1933 that the book was not obscene and could be published and distributed in the U.S. An appeals court agreed. Though in its ruling in favor of Joyce’s work, the court got one thing wrong in saying, “It may be that ‘Ulysses’ will not last as a substantial contribution to literature, and it is certainly easy to believe that.”

How has it been banned? A court order prevented it from being published and distributed in the U.S. for more than a decade, until an appeals court overruled it.

What’s the First Amendment issue? The government can limit production or stop the distribution of books (and other materials) based on obscenity, which would not violate the First Amendment. But the legal standard to meet that is high, and examples where government officials have tried to stop books from being distributed or sold based on obscenity have almost always gone in favor of the author.

4. ‘Tropic of Cancer’ by Henry Miller (1934)

Henry Miller wrote “Tropic of Cancer” in 1934, detailing aspects of his sexual exploits in France. But it wasn’t until censorship laws in the U.S. hindered its publication and distribution nearly 30 years later that debate over it really took flight. An uncensored U.S. version in 1961 sparked censorship and charges of obscenity against the publisher. In 1963, a New York state court deemed it obscene. It was removed from all public libraries in Brooklyn. The U.S. Supreme Court settled the matter in 1964, ruling in favor of the publisher and others who create and distribute controversial materials that do not meet the legal definition of obscenity.

How has it been banned? It was removed from all public libraries in Brooklyn, New York, based on a state court ruling. The U.S. Supreme Court later overturned that decision.

What’s the First Amendment issue? The government can limit production or stop the distribution of books (and other materials) based on obscenity, which would not violate the First Amendment. But the legal standard to meet that is high, and examples where government officials have tried to stop books from being distributed or sold based on obscenity have almost always gone in favor of the author.

5. ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ by J.D. Salinger (1951)

J.D. Salinger is known for two things: being famously reclusive and writing one of the most highly regarded and controversial books of the 20th century. It’s been challenged in schools for profanity and episodes of sex and prostitution. It has been removed from shelves and curriculum and had limits placed on access such as the need for a student to obtain parental permission prior to borrowing the book. The reasons for the decisions have included some that do not violate the First Amendment — because it was inappropriate for a particular grade level — and some that do violate the First Amendment  because decision-makers disagreed with the themes of the book. Teachers have been fired for teaching it in classrooms in violation of a decision that it is not appropriate for the educational needs of the students. It’s also been blamed for inspiring antisocial behavior in teens and inspiring violence by those who don’t feel they fit in with their peers. After shooting and killing musician John Lennon, Mark David Chapman gave a copy of the novel to police to explain his motive.

How has it been banned? It was removed from schools in Wyoming (1986), North Dakota (1987), and California (1989). As the 1999 reference book “100 Banned Books: Censorship Histories of World Literature” noted: “In 1960, a teacher in Tulsa, Oklahoma, 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.”

What’s the First Amendment issue? Public schools can remove books based on educational appropriateness, and community members can use their right to petition to challenge books to have them reviewed and possibly restricted or removed.

6. ‘Naked Lunch’ by William S. Burroughs (1959)

“The Naked Lunch” started as a series of short stories and was first published as a book in France. When a publisher tried to bring it to the U.S. for publication in 1962 (dropping “The” from its title), government officials in Massachusetts used the wide latitude afforded them under local law to prevent it from being distributed, saying it was obscene due to its explicit depictions of drug use, profanity and same-sex relationships. In early 1966, a U.S. Supreme Court decision found books couldn’t be flagged as obscene unless they were “utterly without redeeming social value” (in a later case, the court said books weren’t obscene unless they lack “serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value”).That same year, relying on this Supreme Court decision, the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that “Naked Lunch” was not obscene, paving the way for it to be distributed in Massachusetts.

How has it been banned? It was prevented from being distributed and sold in Boston, as well as in Los Angeles, being cited for obscenity.

What’s the First Amendment issue? The government can limit production or stop the distribution of books (and other materials) based on obscenity, which would not violate the First Amendment. But the legal standard to meet that is high, and examples where government officials have tried to stop books from being distributed or sold based on obscenity have almost always gone in favor of the author.

7. ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ by Harper Lee (1960)

Harper Lee’s most famous book is inspired by her upbringing in Alabama under Jim Crow-era segregation. Though often taught in high school classrooms, it’s drawn challenges, teaching restrictions and removal from required reading lists for its depictions of Black people, use of racial slurs, and themes of rape and incest. More recently, it’s been challenged by people who say it makes them uncomfortable and object to positioning the central protagonist, Atticus Finch, as a “white savior.”

How has it been banned? In 2022, it was removed from mandatory reading lists in a Santa Clarita, California, high school, and teachers were not allowed to use it in curriculum. In 2018, it was removed from an eighth-grade curriculum in Biloxi, Mississippi, and stopped from further instruction due to parental complaints.

What’s the First Amendment issue?   Public schools can remove books based on educational appropriateness, and community members can use their right to petition to challenge books to have them reviewed and possibly restricted or removed.

8. ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’ by Maya Angelou (1969)

Maya Angelou is one of America’s best-known poets, having recited her work at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama. But her autobiographical book “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” stands out for its long-term cultural impact and the many times it’s been challenged in public schools. The book was inspired by the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and highlights Angelou’s upbringing in the South more than 30 years earlier. Its themes of rape, same-sex relationships, teenage pregnancy and race relations have prompted decades of challenges and removals.

How has it been banned? In 2021, the Palmer, Alaska, school board voted to remove the book from the school curriculum, but the board later reversed its decision after community protest. According to the 1998 resource “Banned Books: Literature Suppressed on Social Grounds,” an Alabama state textbook committee rejected the book in 1983, saying it “preaches bitterness and hatred against whites.” Another book, “Banned in the U.S.A.: A Reference Guide to Book Censorship in Schools and Public Libraries” (1994), found that in 1990, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” was removed from a required reading curriculum for ninth graders in Bremerton, Washington, due to parental objections to its content, and removed from an eighth-grade curriculum in Benning, California, in 1991 for similar reasons.

What’s the First Amendment issue?  Public schools can remove books based on educational appropriateness, and community members can use their right to petition to challenge books to have them reviewed and possibly restricted or removed.

9. ‘The Bluest Eye’ by Toni Morrison (1970)

Though it was Toni Morrison’s first novel, “The Bluest Eye” is likely her most recognized in a career full of notable achievements, including the 1993 Nobel Prize in literature. The book also landed Morrison squarely in the camp of famous banned books and authors with its story lines of sex, racism, child abuse and incest. It centers on a young Black girl who longs for lighter skin and bluer eyes. In recent years, Moms for Liberty and similar groups in Florida and other states have challenged the book based on newly passed laws meant to keep certain sexually explicit books out of public schools.

How has it been banned? It was removed from school curriculums and libraries in multiple states. In 2024, it was removed from libraries in all Broward County, Florida, public schools, and in 2020, the superintendent in Marion County, Florida, removed it from district middle schools.

What’s the First Amendment issue?  Public schools can remove books based on educational appropriateness, and community members can use their right to petition to challenge books to have them reviewed and possibly restricted or removed.

10. ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ by Margaret Atwood (1985)

The term “dystopian fiction” is used often to describe Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale.” In it, the U.S. government is overthrown and turned into a dictatorship called the Republic of Gilead. Women in this fictional country are subservient to men; may not read, write or own property; and have no bodily autonomy. It’s been challenged in public schools due to its takes on sex, exploitation and criticisms of religion in government. For example, in 2023, parents in South Carolina called for it to be removed from school library shelves after state legislators cited it during a debate over a proposed state abortion ban, but the challenge was unsuccessful, and the book remained on shelves. The book got a big boost not only from challenges to it but also from its adaptation to screen with a 2017 streaming series on Hulu.

How has it been banned? In 2023, it was removed from libraries and school curriculums in five Florida school districts.

What’s the First Amendment issue?  Public schools can remove books based on educational appropriateness, and community members can use their right to petition to challenge books to have them reviewed and possibly restricted or removed.

11. ‘The Satanic Verses’ by Salmon Rushdie (1988)

Salmon Rushdie is known not only for his writing style but also for daring to feature controversial topics in the face of death threats. “The Satanic Verses” drew scrutiny around the world, most notably in Iran, for its depictions of the Prophet Mohammad and Islam that some Muslims found blasphemous. It also forced Rushdie into hiding after Iran’s supreme leader issued a fatwa against him, calling for the death of him and his publishers. Some countries burned the book and refused to publish it. Even in the U.S., where Rushdie fled from the U.K., some schools and libraries declined to use the book out of fear of the fatwa. Some private bookstores in the U.S. refused to carry it or were attacked for selling it. In 2022, Rushdie was attacked and nearly died while at a literary festival in New York. The book returned to the bestseller lists following the attack.

How has it been banned? According to “The Rushdie Affair: The Novel, the Ayatollah, and the West” by historian Daniel Pipes, some bookstores in the U.S. refused to carry the book based on the controversy and threats from the fatwa and violence against other booksellers.

What’s the First Amendment issue? The First Amendment doesn’t apply to actions by private bookstores, even those in the U.S.

12. ‘Maus’ by Art Spiegelman (1986, 1991)

“Maus” by Art Spiegelman is graphic, both in its comic book style of telling and showing the cruelty inflicted on humans by other humans. It tells the true story of how Spiegelman got his father to recount the experience of his mother and father as Holocaust survivors. He draws the Jews as mice and the Nazis as cats, invoking the language of Hitler labeling Jews as “vermin,” as Spiegelman recounted in 1987.

How has it been banned? In 2022, it was removed from teaching curriculum in a Tennessee school district for all eighth-grade students, citing the graphic novel’s language and nudity.

What’s the First Amendment issue? Public schools can remove books based on educational appropriateness, and community members can use their right to petition to challenge books to have them reviewed and possibly restricted or removed.

13. ‘Harry Potter’ series by J.K. Rowling (1997-2007)

J.K. Rowling’s series of seven books began with the U.K. publication of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” (published as “the Sorcerer’s Stone” in the U.S.). It was a smash hit with its intended youth audience and a target of challenges by religious groups and parents for the subjects of magic, witchcraft and the occult. Challenges to the books ramped up in 2020 following comments from Rowling about women that many fans and actors from the movie adaptations criticized as anti-trans.

How has it been banned? In 2019, all books in the series were removed and unavailable for checkout in a Nashville, Tennessee, Catholic school library.

What’s the First Amendment issue? There is no First Amendment issue involved since the action was at a private school.

14. ‘The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian’ by Sherman Alexie (2007)

Sherman Alexie is known for his humor and blunt depictions of life on and around the Spokane Indian Reservation where he grew up in eastern Washington state. Those fictionalized real-life stories won him the National Book Award — and attracted negative attention and challenges in public schools for their use of sexual language and situations for the stories’ teenage narrator. The challenges to its classroom use increased in 2018 after multiple women accused Alexie of sexual misconduct.

How has it been banned? In 2024, it was removed from school library circulation in Elkhorn, Wisconsin, though later returned. In 2023, it was removed from the ninth-grade curriculum in a Michigan school district, and in 2022, it was challenged and removed from school libraries in the Raymond, Wisconsin, school district.

What’s the First Amendment issue? Public schools can remove books based on educational appropriateness, and community members can use their right to petition to challenge books to have them reviewed and possibly restricted or removed.

15. ‘Gender Queer: A Memoir’ by Maia Kobabe (2019)

Topping many lists of banned and challenged books from 2020 and beyond is Maia Kobabe’s “Gender Queer,” which explores gender identity from a personal memoir perspective. It’s not only a written work, but a graphic novel, leading to many challenges based on written LGBTQ+ and sexually explicit themes and how they’re depicted visually. The American Library Association said the book had been removed from more library shelves than any other book in 2021 and 2022.

How has it been banned? It was removed from school classrooms and libraries and public libraries in multiple states, including the Ada (Idaho) Community Library in 2024. In 2022, a school superintendent in Virginia removed the book from the high school library without a formal challenge, which he later admitted was not within the district’s policy for book challenges.

What’s the First Amendment issue? Public schools can remove books based on educational appropriateness, and community members can use their right to petition to challenge books to have them reviewed and possibly restricted or removed. Public libraries can set similar standards. But the review and removal process must be consistent with the First Amendment, district policies and applicable state laws.

Banned books and the First Amendment

Efforts to stop books’ publication, remove them from schools and libraries, or limit access to them in some ways are not new. The content objections that prompt such attempts stand the test of time — like many novels.

The First Amendment gives wide protection for people to write, publish and read books, but this protection can be limited in some instances. Public schools and the elected officials who oversee them can remove or restrict access to materials based on standards of educational appropriateness. The First Amendment protects parents and community members’ right to petition school boards and libraries to take these actions. It also protects people’s right to stand up at school board meetings and oppose efforts to restrict or remove books.

People who want to challenge books have that right, just as the First Amendment protects the right to read, write or publish a book.

Scott A. Leadingham is a Freedom Forum staff writer. Email 

Rick Mastroianni, Freedom Forum’s director of research and library, contributed background research.