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The following dangerous books - and many others - can be found at your local Public Library. The dates refer to the year in which the book was challenged, banned or burned.  | | Aesop,
Fables (585 B.C.)
According to legend, the Greek slave and storyteller was flung from the cliffs at Delphi for sacrilege.
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 | | Homer,
The Odyssey (387 B.C.)
Plato suggested that state censors should expurgate the outlandish adventures of Odysseus, and all other poetry.
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 | | Confucius,
The Analects (213 B.C.)
When Confucian books and scholars were burned by Qin dynasty officials, a single copy of the sage's works was saved in the state library.
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 | | Ovid,
The Art of Love (8 A.D.)
Upon publication of this sly love manual, Ovid was banished from Rome. U.S. customs banned this work in 1928.
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 | | Goethe,
Johann
The Sorrows of Young Werther (1744)
This story of a doomed lover was banned across Europe after a rash of copycat suicides.
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 | | Paine,
Thomas
The Rights of Man (1792)
The firebrand author of this radical tract fled arrest by the royalist English only to be imprisoned by French democrats.
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 | | Shakespeare,
William
King Lear (1810)
Banned from the English stage until 1820, in deference to the insanity of King George III.
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 | | Flaubert,
Gustave
Madame Bovary (1840)
Sales of this story of a dissatisfied woman skyrocketed when its author was charged with indecency.
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 | | Darwin,
Charles
On the Origin of Species (1859)
Fearing the outraged response to his epoch-making theory, Darwin kept the work in a desk drawer for 15 years before publishing it, amidst a firestorm of controversy.
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 | | Eliot,
George
Adam Bede (1859)
Condemned as the "vile outpourings of a lewd woman's mind" and withdrawn from British libraries.
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 | | Whitman,
Walt
Leaves of Grass (1882)
When this great American poem was banned in Boston for explicit content, Whitman bought a house with proceeds from the increased sales.
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 | | Twain,
Mark
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885)
Banned in the Concord Massachusetts as "trash suitable only for the slums," this classic coming-of-age story has been frequently challenged in the 20th century for racism.
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 | | Steinbeck,
John
The Grapes of Wrath (1939)
Copies of this "ungodly" depression era epic were burned on the library steps in St. Louis, Missouri.
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 | | Mailer,
Norman
The Naked and the Dead (1949)
Banned in Canada by the Minister of National Revenue, who admitted to having only read the "disgusting" parts.
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 | | Brown,
Dee
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. (1974)
This Native American history was removed from a school library in Wisconsin by an administrator, who explained: "if there's a possibility that something might be controversial, then why not eliminate it?"
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 | | Brink,
Andre
A Dry White Season (1979)
An active underground press foiled attempts by the South African government to ban this gripping anti-apartheid novel.
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| | McBride,
Will
Show Me! (1985)
This sex education book was challenged at The Seattle Public Library as "inappropriate for the library collection."
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 | | Chaucer,
Geoffery
The Miller's Tale (1987)
Denounced as "pornography and women's lib.," this bawdy 14th century story was declared off-limits for students in Columbia County, Florida.
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 | | Rushdie,
Salman
The Satanic Verses (1989)
Ayatollah Khomeini declared a death sentence on the author of this comic exploration of Good and Evil. Many bookstores do not stock the work, fearing violence.
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 | | Smiley,
Jane
A Thousand Acres (1991)
This Pulitzer Prize winner was banned at Lynden, WA High School for having "no literary value in our community right now."
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 | | Anon.,
The Bible (1992)
Challenged in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota as "lewd, indecent, obscene, offensive, violent and dangerous to women and children."
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 | | Snyder,
Jane
Sappho (2000)
Several juvenile biographies of homosexuals were removed from libraries in the Anaheim California School District, who claimed they were "too difficult."
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 | | Pilkey,
Dav
Adventures of Captain Underpants (2000)
Removed from a Connecticut elementary school for causing unruly behavior.
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 | | Rowling,
J.K.
The Harry Potter series (2001)
Subject of 448 challenges in 2001 alone, books from this popular series, together with Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, were burned outside a church in New Mexico, for being "masterpieces of satanic deception."
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 | | Banks,
Russell
The Sweet Hereafter (2000)
Challenged at Canandaigua Academy in New York for profanity, drug use, and references to incest. Banks responded: "..I'm writing in the real world..."
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 | | Alvarez,
Julia
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents (2003)
This and seventeen other titles were challenged by the Virginia group 'Parents Against Bad Books in Schools,' for containg "profanity and descriptions of drug abuse, sexually explicit content, and torture."
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