An essay on censorship and “book challenging” in schools for Beacon’s new blog would seem a pretty simple piece to write, considering the audience of book lovers and progressives. Narrow-minded right-wingers ban books; thoughtful, well-read people, people who read books published by Beacon Press, want freedom.
Recently, in a class I teach for future high school teachers at the University of San Francisco, a student caused me to think about the complexity of this issue.
Banned Books Week officially begins tomorrow, and Beacon Broadside has already begun our tribute to free speech with Chris Finan’s discussion of censorship in America, Helene Atwan’s interview with the oft-banned Lois Lowry, and a little nudge in the direction of something we’re quite proud of around these parts: a fantastic page devoted to the publication of the Pentagon Papers over at our sister site. The page features a compelling panel discussion from last year’s UU General Assembly, and Allison Trzop’s Beacon Press and the Pentagon Papers, a master’s thesis that’s more gripping than that mass-market thriller you’ve been carrying in your bag.
Banned Books Week has us thinking about censorship and free speech, but the recent controversy over book banning in prisons also got us fired up (along with Chris W. over at Philocrites). Fortunately, the public outcry over this egregious violation of the First Amendment made the government back off for now. It just goes to show that in order to protect speech, you’ve got to speak up! Of course, there’s still more to come on this story, so we’ll keep an eye on any future developments.
We have more exciting things on deck for next week, including continued Banned Books Week coverage from Rick Ayers, co-author of Great Books for High School Kids, plus thoughts from Rabbi Arthur Waskow in advance of the Interfaith Fast on October 8. Be sure to add us to your RSS reader, or sign up to receive Beacon Broadside by email.
Independent bookstores have something special to offer readers, particularly in this age of information overload, and many of us have a favorite neighborhood store where we like to relax and browse. Over at Maud Newton Joel Turnipseed has a great piece on Micawber’s Books in St. Paul. It’s a celebration of what sets this small, exceptional bookstore apart. John Freeman at Critical Mass talks about how a good bookstore can get even a cynical reviewer crushed under a mountain of free galleys to plunk down a few dollars for a good read. And Books & Books in Miami is getting ready to celebrate twenty-five years—mazel tov!
How about you? Do you have a favorite neighborhood bookstore you’d like to plug? Use the comments and sound off!
On this Banned Books Week, almost 36 years after Beacon Press published the Pentagon Papers 
in
defiance of all efforts by the government to suppress them, we’re reminded of
the critical and continued need for books deemed “dangerous.” To remember that a
single publication once held the power to enrage the president, incur an FBI
witchhunt, and briefly lift the oppressive hood of ignorance that those in the
highest echelons of power seek to suffocate us with is a source of great hope,
as well as an inspiration for all the current (and the forthcoming!) dangerous
books out there.—Allison Trzop
Read about Beacon’s role in the publication of the Pentagon Papers.
Allison Trzop is an assistant editor at Beacon Press. In June of 2007, she had the honor of meeting three dangerous men—Daniel Ellsberg, Robert West, and Senator Mike Gravel—as part of an anniversary panel on the Pentagon Papers, moderated by Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman. “Beacon Press and the Pentagon Papers”(pdf) was originally submitted as her master’s degree project in the Department of Writing, Literature, and Publishing at Emerson College.
Christopher M. Finan is the president of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression and the chair of the National Coalition Against Censorship. He is the author of From the Palmer Raids to the Patriot Act: A History of the Fight for Free Speech in America and Alfred E. Smith: The Happy Warrior.
Censorship is very American.
After all, the First Amendment was something of an afterthought. The Founding Fathers did not plan to protect freedom of speech and freedom of the press in the Constitution. The Bill of Rights was a concession to critics who argued that the Constitution did not provide adequate protection from government tyranny.
How right they were! Only a few years later, one group of the Founding Fathers passed the Alien and Sedition Acts in an effort to silence another group of Founding Fathers.
In 
honor of banned book week, Beacon director Helene Atwan checked in with one of America’s most beloved (and sometimes banned) authors, Lois Lowry. Lois and Helene became friends while serving together on the board of PEN New England, a branch of PEN, the oldest human rights organization in the world. PEN has been fighting for free speech and the rights of readers and writers for decades. If you’re a Poet, Essayist, Editor, Novelist, Bookseller, Librarian, or passionate reader and you haven’t been to any of the PEN programs, you will definitely want to jump to those web sites as soon as you’ve finished reading today’s Beacon Broadside.
Lowry is the acclaimed author of books for children, young adults, and readers of all ages, including the Anastasia Krupnik and Gooney Birds series. She is also the author of The Giver, which has sold over 5 million copies, won the American Library Association’s Newbery Medal, and is currently being made into a motion picture by Warner Brothers. The Giver won another, more dubious honor from the ALA when it made its list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-1999, and the book continues to draw challenges around the country.
Beacon Broadside, a project of Beacon Press, is an online venue for essays, news items, and dispatches from respected writers, thinkers, and activists about our times. The mission of Beacon Broadside is to extend Beacon’s tradition of thought-provoking, fearless commentary beyond the realm of traditional publishing and to reach a new community of socially conscious readers online. We encourage readers to comment on and link to our posts to become part of our ongoing conversation with some of the best writers of our time.
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Before Beacon Broadside launches, setting off into new territory for our press, I thought it might be good to think about the ways in which blogging distinguishes itself from print publication.
I Googled the phrase “books not blogs,” and found this, from Dec. 31, 2004, by Bob Baxley of the blog Drowning in the Current. I don’t know Baxley, and he seems to have let this blog go fallow
earlier this year, but I was intrigued by these sentences from his New
Year’s Eve reflection:
