Banned Books Quiz (a week late, but too good to waste)

Clay Dishon, Library Community Services Manager at RPL's Westover Hills branch, created this challenging quiz for Banned Books Week.  Although the week is over, we think it deserves a spot on the blog.  How many can you answer?

1.  On January 14, 1920, the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice presented publisher Robert M. McBride with a warrant “calling for the seizure of all plates, copies, and sheets” of a novel written by Richmond author James Branch Cabell.  What was the title of this novel?

a. The Line of Love

b. The High Place

c. The Cream of the Jest

d. Jurgen:  A Comedy of Justice

e. The Soul of Melicent

2.  This dramatist, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1936, once said that “censorship of anything, at any time, in any place, on whatever pretense, has always been and always will be the last resort of the boob and the bigot.”  (Hint:  The original production of All God’s Chillun Got Wings received a bomb threat).  

a. Tennessee Williams

b. John Millington Synge

c. Maria Irene Fornes

d. August Strindberg

e. Eugene O’Neill

3.  Guy Montag is the main protagonist in this author’s 1953 novel.

a. Pearl S. Buck

b. John Steinbeck

c. Ray Bradbury

d. Daphne du Maurier

e. Richard Wright

 

4.  Four Wisconsin men belonging to the Christian Civil Liberties Union (CCLU) sought $30,000 each for “emotional distress” they suffered from the West Bend, Wis. Community Memorial Library (2009) for displaying a copy of this book by Francesca Lia Block.

a. Baby Be-Bop

b. Girl Goddess #9

c. Weetzie Bat

d. Pink Smog

e. Ecstasia

5.  This novel by Stephen Chbosky was removed from Portage, Indiana high school classrooms in 2008 for topics such as homosexuality, drug use, and sexual behavior.  (Hint:  Its usage was also restricted in Roanoke, Virginia at William Byrd and Hidden Valley high schools.)

 a. An Abundance of Katherines

 b. Boy Meets Boy

 c. The Perks of Being a Wallflower

 d. ttyl

 e. Rubyfruit Jungle

Clay says, "All of the books listed for question 1 are actually James Branch Cabell books. All of the authors listed for question 3 actually had books on the NY Times Bestseller list during 1953, and all of the choices for question 4 are actually books by Francesca Lia Block."

Answers: 1. d. 2. e. 3. c. 4. a. 5. c.