Banned by Alice Walker, Patricia Holt

From the Publisher

As an introduction to Alice Walker, this small book presents two of Walker's most interesting stories, "Roselily" and "Am I Blue," and the beginning of her prize-winning novel, The Color Purple. Further, the pages of Patricia Holt's introduction and the appendices of letters to the editors and meeting transcripts exemplify ways in which these fictional works have been the center of volatile controversy. They have been the subject of removal from tests (as in the case of the recent literature-based assessment tests in California), from school libraries and from school curricula. These controversies, played out in communities across the United States, cut to the heart of issues of censorship and democratic process.

Library Journal

In response to outrage from Christian conservatives, the California State Board of Education (BOE) removed in 1994 two short stories by Alice Walker from its California Learning Assessment System (CLAS) exam, which was adopted to allow children of all backgrounds a "level playing field." One of the stories, "Roselily," an interior monolog of a poor, Mississippi girl (an unwed mother) as she is being married and taken away to Chicago like chattel, was deemed "anti-religious." The other story, "Am I Blue?," is an allegory of slavery told by a narrator observing the treatment of a horse; the story's ending holds emotional associations of eating animal products with cruelty and was thus marked "anti-meat-eating." Here, in time for Banned Books Week, the two stories are reprinted in full, along with an excerpt from Walker's other much-censored book, The Color Purple. With an introduction by Patricia Holt delineating the controversy and appendixes of newspaper articles, letters, and minutes of the BOE meeting, this book will allow a cooler, more informed discussion of an important debate.Amy Boaz, "Library Journal"

BookList

Walker has paid dearly for her creativity and forthrightness about her belief in personal freedom on all fronts, from sexuality to spirituality. In her poignant memoir, "The Same River Twice" , Walker tracks the course of many of the controversies that have surrounded her work, especially "The Color Purple". Now this striking volume offers a detailed account of the effort to censor two of her most engrossing stories, "Roselily" and "Am I Blue." In her appropriately ironic and critical introduction, Patricia Holt of the "San Francisco Chronicle Book Review" traces the comic yet tragic series of events that led to these stories being removed from a 1994 statewide examination by the California Board of Education, one for being "anti-religious," the other because it was "anti-meat-eating." Holt's fine essay and the stories themselves are followed by appendixes containing news clippings covering the various debates aroused by Walker's prizewinning fiction, making this an invaluable contribution to the literature of censorship.

Details from Seller

• ISBN: 1879960478
• Publisher: Aunt Lute Books
• Pub. Date: June 1996
• Condition:

Comments from the Seller: 06/1996 Hardcover Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 112 p.

• Table of Contents

Table of Contents