Introduction to the collection
Books They Tried to Destroy
Fatwas, bonfires, trials, and prison -- the books that governments, churches, and institutions tried to silence
Last updated: 22 April 2026 -- 1 of 7 published
Every banned book is a confession. What a society suppresses reveals what it fears. The books in this collection were burned, confiscated, prosecuted, or prohibited -- by governments, churches, school boards, and secret police. Some authors were imprisoned. Some were killed. Some went into hiding for decades. None of the books were destroyed.
Each entry tells three stories: who banned it and why, what happened to the people caught in the fallout, and what specifically about the text made suppression feel necessary. The banning is always political. The fear is always about what the book does to the reader.
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Published
- The Vocabulary That Outlived Every Censor -- George Orwell: Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) Banned by the Soviet Union for the entire Cold War. Challenged in American schools for decades. The vocabulary it invented -- Big Brother, doublethink, thoughtcrime -- outlived every censor.
Coming Soon
- Henry Miller: Tropic of Cancer (1934)
- Mark Twain: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885)
- J. D. Salinger: The Catcher in the Rye (1951)
- Mikhail Bulgakov: The Master and Margarita (1967)
- Aldous Huxley: Brave New World (1932)
- Ray Bradbury: Fahrenheit 451 (1953)
1 down. 6 to go. New posts every Wednesday. Subscribe so you don't miss the next one.
The Readings
51 books
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The Vocabulary That Outlived Every Censor — Nineteen Eighty-Four
George Orwell — Nineteen Eighty-Four (illustrated edition)
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This Is Not a Book — Tropic of Cancer
Henry Miller — Tropic of Cancer
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Banned One Month After Publication, and Every Decade Since — Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Mark Twain — Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
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Most-Censored US High-School Book — The Catcher in the Rye
J. D. Salinger — The Catcher in the Rye
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He Burned His First Draft. Stalin Read Every Line. — The Master and Margarita
Mikhail Bulgakov — The Master and Margarita (illustrated edition)
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They Called Huxley a Pornographer. He Was Diagnosing the Future. — Brave New World
Aldous Huxley --- Brave New World
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He Distributed Four Thousand Copies Before the Censors Could Act — A Dry White Season
André Brink — A Dry White Season (illustrated edition)
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His Publisher Censored the Book About Censorship --- for Thirteen Years — Fahrenheit 451
Ray Bradbury --- Fahrenheit 451 (illustrated edition)
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Four Centuries on the Vatican Index — The Prince
Niccolò Machiavelli — The Prince (illustrated edition)
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The Novel That Got Its Translators Killed — The Satanic Verses
Salman Rushdie — The Satanic Verses
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The Trial That Killed British Literary Censorship — Lady Chatterley's Lover
D. H. Lawrence — Lady Chatterley's Lover
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The Novel the CIA Smuggled Back to Russia — Doctor Zhivago
Boris Pasternak — Doctor Zhivago (illustrated edition)
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Burned in the County It Described — The Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck — The Grapes of Wrath
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Burned in a Furnace, Argued at the Supreme Court — Slaughterhouse-Five
Kurt Vonnegut — Slaughterhouse-Five
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A Tehran Childhood, Banned on Three Continents — Persepolis
Marjane Satrapi — Persepolis
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Three Men in a Room, and the Earth Begins to Move — Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems
Galileo Galilei — Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems
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The Last Major English Novel to Stand Trial — Fanny Hill
John Cleland — Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure
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I Saw the Best Minds of My Generation — Howl
Allen Ginsberg — Howl and Other Poems
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The Carpenter Who Made Crosses for the Romans — The Last Temptation of Christ
Nikos Kazantzakis — The Last Temptation of Christ
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An Alley in Cairo, and the Whole History of Religion — Children of the Alley
Naguib Mahfouz — Children of the Alley
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The Most-Banned Book in America — Gender Queer
Maia Kobabe — Gender Queer: A Memoir
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The Author Announced His Own Death. The Court Ordered His Resurrection. — One Part Woman
Perumal Murugan — One Part Woman
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They Tried to Silence a Girl Who Had Already Gone Mute — I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Maya Angelou — I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
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Twenty-Four Cartloads of Argument They Could Not Silence — The Talmud
Rabbinic Authors — The Talmud
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The Crime Was Saying Hinduism Had More Than One Voice — The Hindus
Wendy Doniger — The Hindus: An Alternative History
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France Put Six Flowers on Trial. They Outlived the Court. — Les Fleurs du Mal
Charles Baudelaire — Les Fleurs du Mal
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The Telescope Made Authority Look Away — Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems
Galileo Galilei — Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems
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The Dictatorship Banned the Ghosts Because the Ghosts Remembered. — The House of the Spirits
Isabel Allende — The House of the Spirits
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The Joke They Could Not Permit. — Candide
Voltaire — Candide
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They Burned the Poet Who Had Already Named the Fire. — Buch der Lieder
Heinrich Heine — Buch der Lieder
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Sixteen Lines Killed Their Maker. His Widow Carried Them for Thirty Years. — Stalin Epigram
Osip Mandelstam — Stalin Epigram
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A Boy Refused to Grow. A Nation Refused to Remember. — The Tin Drum
Günter Grass — The Tin Drum
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She Named What the Blade Had Taken — The Hidden Face of Eve
Nawal El Saadawi — The Hidden Face of Eve
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He Buried Them All and Kept Ploughing — To Live
Yu Hua — To Live
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Seized, Burned, Banned. She Said Yes. — Ulysses
James Joyce — Ulysses
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A Thirteen-Year-Old's Curiosity Was the Part They Couldn't Forgive — The Diary of a Young Girl
Anne Frank — The Diary of a Young Girl
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Seized the Day Its Author Died, It Burned Across Three Continents — The Wretched of the Earth
Frantz Fanon — The Wretched of the Earth
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His Own Publisher Told Him to Burn It — Giovanni's Room
James Baldwin — Giovanni's Room
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Everyone Was Happy and Nobody Could Say Why — The Fat Years
Chan Koonchung — The Fat Years
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The City That Could Not Be One Thing — The Moor's Last Sigh
Salman Rushdie — The Moor's Last Sigh
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When Nuns Became Noblewomen — The Decameron
Giovanni Boccaccio — The Decameron
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The Dictator Dictated Until His Corpse Ran Out of Voice — I the Supreme
Augusto Roa Bastos — I the Supreme
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No Apology, No Permission — Tropic of Capricorn
Henry Miller — Tropic of Capricorn
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Endless Forms Most Dangerous — On the Origin of Species
Charles Darwin — On the Origin of Species
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The Word Soldiers Actually Used — The Naked and the Dead
Norman Mailer — The Naked and the Dead
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She Was a Symbol Before She Was a Person — Burger's Daughter
Nadine Gordimer — Burger's Daughter
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Most People Are Real Nice When You Finally See Them — To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee — To Kill a Mockingbird
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Every Relationship a Transaction, Every Transaction a Grave — Jin Ping Mei
Lanling Xiaoxiao Sheng — Jin Ping Mei (The Plum in the Golden Vase)
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Rise Up and Be Born with Me, Brother — Canto General
Pablo Neruda — Canto General
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The Look Through the Aquarium Glass — If This Is a Man
Primo Levi — If This Is a Man
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The Words They Fed to the Fire — Tyndale New Testament
William Tyndale — Tyndale New Testament