Posts Tagged → banned books

Beloved

by Toni Morrison

SIGNED | First Edition, 12th Printing | Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. | 1988

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Toni Morrison was a powerhouse and a revolutionary in the literary world. She was the first Black woman editor at Random House. She wrote and published 11 novels in her lifetime, as well as children’s books and essay collections. In 1993, she became the first Black American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Her name falls high on any list of most-frequently banned authors, but her graceful yet unflinching depictions of race, class, family, and love remain relevant and well-read to this day. And her very own pen has touched the pages of this signed, 12th printing, hardcover edition of Beloved.

Beloved is based on the true story of Margaret Garner, an enslaved woman who killed her own child to spare her from a life of slavery. A controversial classic of American literature, it has been banned and censored from some schools and libraries over the years, most commonly for reasons of bestiality, infanticide, sex, and violence. But despite subsequent debate, Beloved received an outpour of acclaim upon publication, winning the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988, as well as the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Book Award, the Melcher Book Award, the Lyndhurst Foundation Award, the Elmer Holmes Bobst Award, and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. It was nominated for the 1988 National Book Award, and when it didn’t win 48 notable Black writers and critics — including Maya Angelou, June Jordan, Angela Davis, and others — signed a letter of protest that was published in The New York Times Book Review.

Morrison kept another letter close to her heart — and framed on her wall. The Texas prison system wrote her after her novel Paradise was removed from prison libraries because they thought it might incite riots. In the 2019 documentary The Pieces I Am, Morrison remembers receiving the letter and thinking, “How powerful is that! I could tear up the whole place.” This “tearing up the place” spirit endures in the pages of Beloved, and in all of Morrison’s iconic writing.

The Catcher in the Rye

by J. D. Salinger

First Edition, First Printing, Later Dust Jacket | Little, Brown and Company | 1951

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This first edition, first printing of The Catcher in the Rye is a superstar on the Dawn Treader shelves. Since its publication in 1951, Salinger’s only novel has become an infamous problem child on high school reading lists. It has been banned, challenged, and removed from lists and libraries across the United States, but readers can’t stay away — it remains one of the most commonly assigned books in English classes, and around 1 million copies are sold each year.

Certain first editions of The Catcher in the Rye can be valued at up to $25,000 (and in one instance, $65,000!), depending on their condition and whether or not they wear the original dust jacket (first and second printings of the novel feature a photo of Salinger stretched across the back of the jacket, but the famously reclusive author requested its removal after he found himself increasingly present in the literary spotlight). Why is a first edition of The Catcher in the Rye so valuable? First editions in general are considered the closest a reader can get to the version of a book seen through production by its original author. Rarity of early printings and popularity of subsequent editions are also factors, and The Catcher in the Rye has certainly enjoyed its day — or century — in the sun.

Some credit the novel’s continued popularity to the “Streisand Effect,” a phenomenon where something is sought after explicitly because so many people are trying to keep it under wraps. Could repeated attempts to keep The Catcher in the Rye out of students’ hands be a reason why it is so often found in them? The novel of troubled adolescence has also caught a certain notoriety after being linked to several high profile violent crimes. Former security guard Mark David Chapman was found with a copy on the night he shot John Lennon. Inside, he had written, “This is my statement,” and signed the note “Holden Caulfield.” Robert John Bardo was carrying a copy of The Catcher in the Rye when he killed Rebecca Schaeffer in her home in 1989. It was also one of several books found in John Hinckley Jr.’s hotel room on the night he attempted to assassinate Ronald Reagan. The question of how much influence the novel had over these killers’ psyches — and how much influence these crimes have had over its popularity and sales — has been hotly debated.

Despite a history marred with censorship and allegations of criminal influence, The Catcher in the Rye remains a stalwart of the American literary canon. Next time you’re in town, stop by the Dawn Treader to take a look at our historic copy!