Scene from "Howl" trial
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by
madness, starving hysterical naked,
dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn
looking for an angry fix…
These are the famous or maybe infamous opening lines from “Howl” by Allan Ginsberg. The publication of this book in 1956 set off a firestorm of censorship which was finally played out in a pornography trial which ruled the publication of the book was not considered pornography. The book, published by Lawrence Ferlinghetti at City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco is just one of hundreds of books which have been banned and continue to be banned each year. That’s why every year the American Library Association sponsors Banned Book Week to draw attention to the attempts at book banning.
This Monday September 27 at 7 p.m. on Lansing Online News Radio (LCC Radio-WLNZ 89.7) censorship will be one of the topics we discuss with three guests who are intimately involved in the art of writing and bookselling. The guests are Stephanie Glazier, MSU Center for Poetry; Ray Walsh, Curious Book Shop & Michigan Antiquarian Book and Paper Show and baseball historian and award winning author Peter Morris.
Read an interesting blog post on “Howl” by Jonathon Kim on Huffington Post. A listing of banned books and a good primer on censorship has been compiled here.
