Book Banning – The New York Public Library Is Trying to Counter It
- by Michael Stillman
Books For All.
Banned Books Books For All.
The long arm of censorship has been bearing down on America in ways I've not seen in all my (many) years. Books are being banned from public and school libraries not just on typical obscenity grounds, but because of topics such as race, history, and LGBTQ concerns. Sometimes, the justification given is to spare young people from feeling guilty for things others have done before them, not for their own wrongs.
This growing censorship has not escaped the notice of the New York Public Library. It has taken action to counter the censorship with a program called “Books For All,” though it may be mostly symbolic. With the cooperation of publishers Hachette, Macmillan, and Scholastic, they are offering free access to four books that have been banned in some places. The books are available to anyone. You don't have to be a member of the NYPL or a resident of New York. As they are electronic copies, anyone can get them from anywhere. They are free – no charges, no late fees. All you need is NYPL's SimplyE app, available from Google Play and the Apple App Store.
The four books are Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, King and the Dragonflies by Kacen Callender, Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi, and The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger. I will admit to having read only one of these, The Catcher in the Rye. I am guessing language is the issue as nothing else jumps out. A few libraries banned it when it came out in 1951 for this reason, but today? Holden Caulfield's language was a bit improper for 1951 but kids these days talk more coarsely all the time among themselves. Nothing Caulfield said is going to shock them, nor their parents either.
I don't know what the others are about but the one about racism seems obvious. Is talking about racism a problem? Are we better off pretending it doesn't exist? Will this make it go away? Will the bad parts of our history – slavery, segregation, lynching, mistreatment of Native Americans and of immigrants from “No Irish Need Apply” to the No-Nothing Party, never have happened if we pretend they didn't?
It made me wonder what they do in Germany. Do they ban mention of the Nazis, the concentration camps, the crematoriums, the Holocaust, similar to the way Russia forbids mention of the killings and war crimes in Ukraine? I don't think so, though it's not a feel-good story for the children. Isn't knowing about the bad the way to prevent it from happening in the future? Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Sometimes I wonder whether those who seek to prevent the young from knowing about the bad parts of our history are less interested in protecting their tender ears than in wanting us to continue those terrible practices.
Sotheby’s, July 14: Henry De La Beche. "Awful Changes," 1830. $6,000 to $9,000.
Sotheby’s, July 15: [Apollo 11]. Flight Plan, Complete Original Printing Signed by Buzz Aldrin. $5,000 to $8,000.
Sotheby’s, July 15: Thomas Alva Edison. Documents Establishing and Ending the Edison Electric Railway Company. $20,000 to $30,000.
Sotheby’s, July 15: Richard P. Feynman. Feynman's Lectures on Gravitation 1-16, Including the Original Transcriptions of Lectures 12-16 by Morinigo and Wagner, With Richard Feynman's Manuscript Notations, 1971. $12,000 to $18,000.
Sotheby’s, July 15: [Apollo 9]. A Group of Manuals and Mission Documents used by Stuart Roosa as a member of the Astronaut Support Crew. $5,000 to $8,000.
Sotheby’s, July 15: [BYTE: The Small Systems Journal]. A collection of early foundational issues of Byte: The Small Systems Journal, with rare hardcover editions. $5,000 to $8,000.
Forum Auctions The 10th Anniversary Sale Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper July 16, 2026
Forum, July 16: Inundation papyrus. P.Michael 4, the ‘Inundation papyrus’, a geographical account of the Nile near Canopus, in Greek, remains of two columns from a manuscript scroll on papyrus, Egypt, second century CE. £12,000-18,000
Forum, July 16: Book of Hours, use of Sarum, manuscript on vellum, 6 full-page miniatures, with famous Middle English inscriptions, Southern Netherlands for the English market, [c.1430]. £30,000-50,000
Forum, July 16: Qu'ran, Arabic manuscript on burnished, stencilled, and gold-flecked paper, 447ff., Sultanate Gujarat, Ahmadabad, [after 1411 but no later than 1442]. £15,000-20,000
Forum Auctions The 10th Anniversary Sale Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper July 16, 2026
Forum, July 16: Turner (William). A New boke of the natures and properties of all wines that are commonly vsed here in England, rare first edition of the first English book on wine, By William Seres, 1568. £20,000-£30,000
Forum, July 16: Spenser (Edmund). The Faerie Queene. first edition, Printed [by John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, 1590. £30,000-40,000
Forum, July 16: Shakespeare (William). The Comedie of Errors, extracted from the first folio, Isaac Jaggard and Edward Blount, 1623. £15,000-20,000
Forum Auctions The 10th Anniversary Sale Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper July 16, 2026
Forum, July 16: Fleming (Ian). Casino Royale, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1953. £40,000-60,000
Forum, July 16: d'Agoty (Jacques-Fabien Gautier). Anatomie de la Tête, first edition, Paris, chez le Sieur Gautier, 1748. £10,000-15,000
Forum, July 16: Martial Arts.- Lee (Bruce). 'Praying Mantis style' Kung Fu book, containing numerous annotations, diagrams and graphs in Bruce Lee's hand, c. 1960. £50,000-70,000
Forum Auctions The 10th Anniversary Sale Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper July 16, 2026
Forum, July 16: Warre (Capt. Henry James). Sketches in North America and the Oregon Territory, first edition, rare hand-coloured issue, 1848. £30,000-40,000
Forum, July 16: Norie (John William). The Marine Atlas, or Seaman's Complete Pilot for all the principal places in the known world..., 1826. £30,000-50,000
Forum, July 16: Mao Tse-tung.- Kim Il-sung.-[Note book for visitors from China to Korea], signed by Mao and Kim, [Beijing, 1954]. £10,000-15,000
