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Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn: A History of Censorship for the Banned American Literature Classic

© Mary M. Alward

The question, “Should Huckleberry Finn be banned?” was first posed in 1885 – the year the book about an interracial friendship was first published - when official committee members of the Public Lbrary of Concord, Massachusetts said, "rough, coarse and inelegant, dealing with a series of experiences not elevating, the whole book being more suited to the slums that to intelligent, respectable people" (Boston Evening Transcript March 17, 1885 p. 6).

Though the library banned Mark Twain’s books, he insisted they be sold door to door. This appealed to the public because if they subscribed, Twain’s books were delivered right to their homes.

Twenty years later, the library in Brooklyn, New York excluded Twain’s book from the children’s reading room because it felt that the character of Huck set a bad example for young people.

Twain’s use of slang to describe people of color in the book didn't help the cause. The 1996 report from People for the American Way on “Attacks on the Freedom to Learn” states that Huckleberry Finn was one of the 10 most frequently challenged books in the 1990s, and the most challenged book in 1995-1996.

In Hannibal, Missouri, Twain’s hometown, they celebrate a “Tom Sawyer Day Festival,” but want nothing to do with Huckleberry Finn or The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson. Both novels attack racism and the institution of slavery, but the town insist it has no history of racism itself.

While Twain was amused by attempts to ban his book, others take it more seriously. Margaret Norris, an African American teacher from San Francisco, believes it is because Twain’s attitude reaffirms that, “This is how you are, like it or not and that’s why the book is so painful and important, because he is still telling us today.”

Another teacher, David Bradley, feels “if we’d eradicated the problem of racism in our society Huckleberry Finn would be the easiest book in the world to teach."

By 1905 Mark Twain was considered a great literary force. In 1935, Ernest Hemmingway said, “all modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn…All American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since.”

Twain’s novels will undoubtedly continue to be challenged. They show us exactly how much or how little America has changed, Twain’s part in changing it ,and why his writings continue to raise difficult questions more than a century after Huckleberry Finn was first published.

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