Believe It Or Not – A Florida School District Removes 1,600 Books from Its Shelves
- by Michael Stillman
Book burning in Nazi Germany (National Archives photo).
Schools in Escambia County, Florida, have removed an astonishing 1,600 books from their schools in response to a law passed last year by the Florida legislature and signed by the Governor. It requires the removal of books with “sexual conduct.” The law ensures that anything that might remotely meet their definition of “sexual conduct” is removed by making it a felony for teachers, librarians, or others not to remove such books. Teachers and librarians did not sign on to the risk of going to prison when they chose their vocations. It is easier to play it safe and just remove the books. The law also provides for parents to object to books and if they do not like the school's decision, make the case go to a special magistrate, a costly process for which the school must pay.
The Escambia list looks like some kind of parody of book banning it is so absurd, but a felony prosecution is quite serious if you are the target. The list includes eight encyclopedias, five dictionaries including Merriam Webster's Elementary Dictionary, Ripley's Believe It or Not, the Guinness Book of World Records, National Geographic Kids, Anne Frank's Diary, The World Book Encyclopedia of People and Places, The Teen Vogue Handbook: An Insider’s Guide to Careers in Fashion, The Bible Book, and books by John Grisham (nine titles), Agatha Christie, Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities, David Copperfield Young Readers edition), Michael Crichton, Victor Hugo, Arthur Conan Doyle (Adventures of Sherlock Holmes), William Faulkner (five titles), F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gustave Flaubert, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Thomas Hardy, Marcel Proust, Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce (three titles), Stan Lee, Thomas Keneally, Jack Kerouac, Cormac McCarthy, Stephen King (23 titles), Bram Stoker, C. S. Lewis, Sinclair Lewis, Malcolm X, Boris Pasternak, Bill O'Reilly, Sylvia Plath, Ayn Rand, Kurt Vonnegut, Joseph Heller, and many, many more. Biographies of Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Oprah Winfrey, Nicki Minaj, and Thurgood Marshall also make the list.
Some of those removed are permanently banned, while others are off the shelves until further evaluation. How long that will take with 1,600 books including numerous dictionaries and encyclopedias on the list is not known, but that could take a while.
The producer of one of the removed books is fighting back. Ripley's Believe It or Not is offering a free book to any Florida resident. Hopefully, they won't be arrested for spreading pornography. Ripley's posted on their website, “Recently, officials in Florida’s Escambia County Public Schools district have plunged into a literary adventure of their own: removing and flagging over 1,600 books for review and potential banning. In a weird plot twist, this includes eight encyclopedias, five dictionaries, and hundreds of reference books – including three of our very own Ripley’s Believe It or Not! titles.
“Believe It or Not!, Ripley’s is in excellent company, accompanied on the list with no less than Stephanie Meyer, Maya Angelou, Ernest Hemmingway, and Charles Dickens!
“However, the pen is mightier than the sword, and Ripley’s has decided to gift a complimentary copy of their annual book to Florida residents, free of charge. Now through May 15, 2024, Florida residents can request a book be mailed to them at www.ripleys.com/general/floridabooks.”
They concluded, “Our focus for the last 105 years has always been a lighthearted look at the curiosities that make up society. We celebrate uniqueness, a responsibility that we take to heart and will continue to for years to come.”
This would all be humorous if it was a Ripley' Believe It or Not story, a one-of-a-kind celebration of “uniqueness.” It is not. Attacks on libraries, both school and public, are not just happening in Escambia County nor just Florida. Libraries are being attacked throughout America and librarianship is anything but the peaceful avocation it once was. Books have long been the target of every sort of tyrant, those who wanted to keep people in the dark, deprive them of their freedom to read, learn and think. As the old saying goes, freedom is not free. It is on the run today in a way never seen before in my long lifetime. If the people of Escambia County, Florida, and all America don't cherish and stand up for their freedom, it will be taken away.
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
Sotheby’s Shelf Life: Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper from the Library of Stanley J. Seeger and Christopher Cone 25 June – July 7
Sotheby’s, July 7: Ludwig van Beethoven. Autograph sketches for the overture "Die Weihe des Hauses", op.124, [1822], UNPUBLISHED. £150,000 to £200,000.
Sotheby’s, July 7: Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice, 1813, first edition, 3 volumes, contemporary half calf. £50,000 to £70,000.
Sotheby’s, July 7: Walt Whitman. Leaves of Grass, Brooklyn, 1855, first edition, first issue, original green cloth, the Doheny copy. £50,000 to £70,000.
Sotheby’s, July 7: Binding—Sangorski & Sutcliffe—Omar Khayyam. Rubaiyat, London, 1872, third edition, in a magnificent jewelled Peacock binding. £15,000 to £20,000.
Sotheby’s, July 7: George Eliot. Middlemarch, Edinburgh and London, 1871, first edition in the original parts. £20,000 to £30,000.
Forum Auctions The Private Library: Fine Printing & Private Press books, the collection of the late David Chambers July 9, 2026
Forum, July 9: Hassall (Joan) A large collection of over 300 original woodblocks of engravings for various books, v.d., with Hassall's engraver's glass water-globe (Qty) - Est. £10,000-15,000
Forum, July 9: Eragny Press.- [Bradley (Katherine Harris) & Edith Emma Cooper], "Michael Field." Whym Chow, Flame of Love, one of only 27 copies, inscribed by Bradley, the rarest book from the press, 1914. - Est. £3,000-4,000
Forum, July 9: [Moore (Thomas Sturge)] [Wood Engravings], 71 wood-engravings printed by David Chambers from the original blocks, the only set on Japanese Hosho paper, from an edition of 5 sets, [1970]. - Est. £3,000-4,000
Forum Auctions The Private Library: Fine Printing & Private Press books, the collection of the late David Chambers July 9, 2026
Forum, July 9: La Fontaine (Jean de) Contes et Nouvelles en vers, 2 vol., engraved plates after Eisen, fine early 19th century blue morocco, gilt, by Bradel l'ainé, Amsterdam [Paris], 1762. - Est. £2,000-3,000
Forum, July 9: Erotica.- Prostitution.- Pretty Women of Paris (The); Their Names and Addresses, Qualities and Faults..., [Paris], privately printed at the Press of the Prefecture de Police, 1883. - Est. £3,000-4,000
Forum, July 9: Vale Press.- Ricketts (Charles) & Lucien Pissarro. De la Typographie et de l'Harmonie de la Page Imprimée…, [one of 216 copies], bound in dark blue morocco tooled in gilt, by Sarah T.Prideaux, 1898. - Est. £1,000-1,500
Forum Auctions The Private Library: Fine Printing & Private Press books, the collection of the late David Chambers July 9, 2026
Forum, July 9: Martin (John) Illustrations of the Bible, complete set of 20 mezzotints, good impressions, rarely found in early states, [c.1831-1835]. - Est. £1,000-1,500
Forum, July 9: Golden Cockerel Press.- Four Gospels of the Lord Jesus Christ (The), one of 500 copies, Mary Gill's copy, Waltham St. Lawrence, 1931 with a signed proof of engraving on japon numbered 10/10 (2) - Est. £5,000-7,000
Forum, July 9: Boccaccio (Giovanni) The Decameron, 3 vol., vol.1 extra-illustrated by John Buckland Wright with c.150 erotic original drawings in pen & ink and pencil, 1886 [extra-illustrated c.1940]. - Est. £10,000-15,000
Forum Auctions The Private Library: Fine Printing & Private Press books, the collection of the late David Chambers July 9, 2026
Forum, July 9: Cox (Morris) Collection of Gogmagog Press Books, 35 vol., rare complete collection of printed books issued by the press, limited editions, most signed by Cox, 1957-83. - Est. £10,000-15,000
Forum, July 9: Wynkyn de Worde.- [Terentius Afer (Publius)] [Comedie...], [Paris, Josse Badius: sold in London by Wynkyn de Worde, & others], [15 July 1504]. - Est. £4,000-6,000
Forum, July 9: Mosley (James) Ornamented Types. Twenty-Three Alphabets from the Foundry of Louis John Pouchée, 2 vol., one of 10 copies for presentation, from an edition of 210, 1992-93. - Est. £1,000-2,000
