List of books banned by governments

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

Many societies have banned certain books. This is a partial list of books which have been banned.

Various scriptures have been banned (and sometimes burned) at several points in history. The Bible, the Qur'an, and other religious scriptures have all been subjected to censorship and have been banned in various cities and countries. In Medieval Europe, the Roman Catholic Church created a program that lasted until 1966 to deal with dissenting printed opinion; it was called the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (index of prohibited books). Over the years many books based on the scriptures have also been banned, such as Leo Tolstoy's The Kingdom of God is Within You, which was banned in Russia for being anti-establishment.

Books deemed critical of the state or its interests are another common target for banning.

Books that deal with criminal matter have also been subjected to censorship. Small-press titles that have become infamous by being banned include The Anarchist Cookbook, E for Ecstasy, and Hit Man.

In the four-volume series Banned Books published by FactsOnFile in 1998, the volumes were divided by grounds for banning: political, religious, sexual and social. The first three are often cited together as taboo in polite conversation.

Notably, children's books that deal with death or other teenage angst or various crimes often find themselves banned perhaps because of parental worries about teenage suicide or copycat crimes. Many publications are targeted on the premise that children would be corrupted by reading them. This fear led to the creation of the Comics Code Authority in 1954.

List of banned books

A

Title	Author	Type of Literature	Reason
The Age of Reason	Thomas Paine	Philosophical treatise	Banned in 18th century UK for blasphemy
All Quiet on the Western Front	Erich Maria Remarque	Anti-war novel	Banned in Nazi Germany for demoralizing and insulting the Wehrmacht.
American Psycho	Bret Easton Ellis	Crime novel	Sold wrapped in plastic and only sold to adults in Australia. Banned completely in Queensland.
The Anarchist Cookbook	William Powell	Guide book	Banned in some countries outside of the US because of security reasons, as the book contains recipes for numerous explosives. Sale of the book is prohibited to any one under 21 in some areas.
Army of God Manual	Anon	Crime	Classic 3rd edition, copies seized by court in Alexandria,Virginia, USA. Features 99 covert ways to stop abortion.
Animal Farm	George Orwell	Political novella	Publication delayed in UK because of anti-Stalin theme. Confiscated in Germany by Allied troops. Banned in 1946 in Yugoslavia.

B

Title	Author	Type of Literature	Reason
Bible	Various authors	Religious text	Many translations of The Bible were banned by the Index Librorum Prohibitorum in the Catholic Church. Also the books were banned and forbidden in the Protestant faiths. Banned in Saudi Arabia for not being of the Muslim faith.
Biko	Donald Woods	Biography	Banned in South Africa for its criticism of the apartheid system and white government.
Black Beauty	Anna Sewell	Novel	Was banned in South Africa because of the use of the word 'black' in the title.
Beautiful Retard	Matthew Hansen	Novel	Banned in some US states because of its offensive title.
Bhavsagar Granth	Baba Bhaniara	Religious text	Banned in Punjab, India because it is deemed heretical by orthodox Sikhs.
The Blue Lotus	Hergé	Graphic novel	Banned in China for its pro-Kuomintang view and support.
The Book of One Thousand and One Nights		Collection	Banned in many primarily Muslim countries.

C

Title	Author	Type of Literature	Reason
Call of the Wild	Jack London	Novel	Banned in Yugoslavia, Italy, and burned in Nazi bonfires.
Candide	Voltaire	Novel	Seized by US Customs in 1930 for obscenity.
Civil Disobedience	Henry David Thoreau	Essay	Removed from US libraries during McCarthyism. Banned in South Africa
The Communist Manifesto	Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels	Economic treatise	Banned in anti-Communist countries and the US during the Red Scare. Challenged in libraries for political reasons.
Comentarios Reales de los Incas	Inca Garcilaso de la Vega	History of the Inca Empire and its conquest by the Spanish	Published in Spain by the son of Spanish conquistador and an Inca princess, its publication in Lima was forbidden by Carlos III of Spain during the uprising led by Tupac Amaru II, and was only published again in the Americas in 1918.

D

Title	Author	Type of Literature	Reason
Dakar - The story of the Israeli submarine unit	Mike Eldar, Captain Navy	Israeli Navy History	The book was banned in 1997 by a district court, due to an alleged charge according to the "Official Secret Act" following the ban of Eldar's previous book "Flotilla 11" regardless the fact it had been approved by the Israeli military censor and despite the fact that over 2000 copies had been sold. Eldar was accused for "espionage", his home was searched, his website was shut down and his computer and documents were confiscated. Following a 4 year legal struggle the book was released and all charges against Eldar were dropped.
Did 6 Million Really Die?	Richard Harwood	Holocaust denial	Banned in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, and most of mainland Europe for Holocaust denial.
Doctor Zhivago	Boris Pasternak	Novel	Banned within the USSR until 1988 for its criticism of the Bolshevik Party.
The Death of Lorca	Ian Gibson	Biography, True crime	Banned briefly in Spain. [1]

F

Title	Author	Type of Literature	Reason
Flotilla 11 - The battle for citation	Nike Eldar, Navy Captain	Israeli navy history	The book was banned in 1997 by a government book committee acting under the "Official Secret Act" after it had been approved by the Israeli military censor and regardless of the fact that about 500 books had been sold. The book was republished in 2002 with no changes.
For Whom the Bell Tolls	Ernest Hemingway	Novel	Banned in Spain during Francisco Franco's rule for its pro- Republican views.

J

Title	Author	Type of Literature	Reason
Journal of Current Pictorial	Chinese Alliance	Manhua	Banned by China's Qing government for spreading anti-Qing propaganda.

K

Title	Author	Type of Literature	Reason
The Key of Solomon	(Hidden)	Grimoire/Magic	Banned in Europe by Pope Innocent VI 1350 (& burnt), and again in 1559 for being dangerous.
The Kincora Scandal	Chris Moore	True crime	Banned in UK for alleging British cover up over Satanic Abuse.
The King Never Smiles	Paul M. Handley	Biography	Banned in Thailand for its criticism of King Bhumibol Adulyadej
The Kingdom of God Is Within You	Leo Tolstoy	Religious treatise	Banned in Czarist Russia for its Christian anarchist content.

L

Title	Author	Type of Literature	Reason
The Last Temptation of Christ	Nikos Kazantzakis	Religious novel	Banned for blasphemy and its portrayal of Jesus.
Lady Chatterley's Lover	D. H. Lawrence	Novel	Temporarily banned in the United States and UK for violation of obscenity laws. Banned in Australia.
Lolita	Vladimir Nabokov	Novel	Banned in Iran and Saudi Arabia for its content of pedophilia.
The Lorax	Dr. Seuss	Children's book	Banned in parts of the US for being an allegorical political commentary.

M

Title	Author	Type of Literature	Reason
The Malay Dilemma	Mahathir bin Mohamad	Political ideology	Banned in Malaysia for its criticism of UMNO and the May 13 Incident. But the ban was lifted when Dr. Mahathir himself is made the 4th Prime Minister of Malaysia.
The Manchurian Candidate	Richard Condon	Political novel	Banned in Communist states for political reason. Condemned by the American Legion.
Mein Kampf	Adolf Hitler	Political ideology	Possession and sale for historical reasons is legal in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands. Only reproduction is forbidden due to copyrights (held by Bavarian state, expiring 70 years after the death of the author: 31. December 2015).
Mephisto	Klaus Mann	Political novel / Satire	In 1968, Gustaf Gründgens' adopted son Peter Gorski sued Nymphenburger Verlagsbuchhandlung, then the publisher of Mephisto in West Germany. The Federal Constitutional Court of Germany ruled that Gründgens' personal freedom (Article 2 of the Basic Law) was more important than the freedom of art (Article 5).
The Moon is Down	John Steinbeck	Political novel	Banned in Nazi Germany and Nazi occupied countries during World War II. Distributed Illegally by various resistance movements.
The Mountain Wreath	Petar II Petrović Njegoš	Drama in verse	Banned in Bosnia schools by Carlos Westendorp.

N

Title	Author	Type of Literature	Reason
Nineteen Eighty-Four	George Orwell	Sci-fi/Dystopian novel	Banned in the USSR for political reasons. Accused of anti-semitism. Challenged in Florida for pro-communist and sexual themes.
Notre ami le roi	Gilles Perrault	Biography of Hassan II of Morocco	Banned in Morocco for political reasons. [2]

O

Title	Author	Type of Literature	Reason
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich	Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn	Novel	Banned in the USSR for political reasons. Author was sent into exile.

P

Title	Author	Type of Literature	Reason
The Peaceful Pill Handbook	Philip Nitschke and Fiona Stewart	Instructional manual on euthanasia	Banned in Australia for political reasons.
Perfidy	Ben Hecht	Historical novel	Banned by certain Jewish Federation and Zionist libraries because of its poor depiction of the Zionist response to the holocaust.

Q

Title	Author	Type of Literature	Reason
Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong	Mao Zedong	Collection	Banned in South Vietnam and anti-Communist nations in Asia.

R

Title	Author	Type of Literature	Reason
Rights of Man	Thomas Paine	Political	Banned in the UK and author charged with treason for supporting the French Revolution. Banned in Czarist Russia after the Decembrist revolt.
Rangila Rasul	Pt. Chamupati	Religious	Currently banned in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

S

Title	Author	Type of Literature	Reason
The Satanic Verses	Salman Rushdie	Novel	Banned in India, Singapore, and Muslim nations for blasphemy.
Shanghai Baby (novel)	Wei Hui	Novel (fictionalized memoir)	Forty thousand copies of Shanghai Baby were burned by the Chinese government. Rights were subsequently sold in 19 countries. 200,000 copies are in print in Japan alone.
Spycatcher	Peter Wright	Autobiography	Banned in UK 1985-1988 for revealing secrets. Wright was a former MI5 intelligence officer and his book was banned before it was even published in 1987.
Suicide mode d'emploi	Claude Guillon	Essay	This book, reviewing all the accessible recipes for comitting suicide, was cause of a great scandal in France in the 70' and the subject of a law edicted in the french parliament which forbids not only this book to be sold in France but any medium giving tips or recipes on the way to kill oneself.

T

Title	Author	Type of Literature	Reason
Thalia	Arius	Songbook	Banned in the Roman Empire in the 330s+ for contradicting Trinitarianism. All of Arius' writings were ordered burned and Arius exiled, and presumably assassinated for his writings. banned by the Catholic Church for the next thousand plus years.	Criticized trinitarianism
The Turner Diaries	William Luther Pierce	Novel	Book stores and libraries refuse to distribute it because of its racist theme. Banned in Germany for its Nazi ideology theme and Pierce leadership in the American Nazi Party. Blamed for a number of crimes allegedly inspired by the novel.
Tropic of Cancer	Henry Miller	Novel (fictionalized memoir)	Banned in the US in the 1930s until the early 1960s, seized by US customs for sexually explicit content and vulgarity. The rest of Miller's work was also banned by the United States. Also banned in South Africa until the late 1980s.	} U Title Author Type of Literature Reason Ulysses James Joyce Novel Challenged and temporarily banned in the US for its sexual content. Ban overturned in United States v. One Book Called Ulysses. Uncle Tom's Cabin Harriet Beecher Stowe Novel Banned in the Southern States and Czarist Russia. Challenged by the NAACP for allegedly racist portrayal of African Americans and the use of the word "Nigger". United States-Vietnam Relations: 1945-1967 Robert McNamara and the United States Department of Defense Government Study President Nixon attempted to suspend publication of classified information. See: New York Times Co. v. United States W Title Author Type of Literature Reason We Yevgeny Zamyatin Sci-fi novel Banned in the USSR for political reasons. The Wealth of Nations Adam Smith Economic treatise Banned in Great Britain and France for criticizing Mercantilism. Banned in communist nations for its capitalist content. The Well of Loneliness Radclyffe Hall Novel Banned in the UK in 1928 for its lesbian theme, republished in 1949. What my Mother Doesn't Know Sonya Sones Novel Banned in some school libraries for use of sexual content. Wild Swans Jung Chang Novel Banned in China for political reasons. Winds of Change Reza Pahlavi Political science Banned in Iran for political reasons. Z Title Author Type of Literature Reason Zweites Buch Adolf Hitler Transcript Possession and sale is illegal in Germany and Austria because of Nazi content. See also Areopagitica: A speech of Mr John Milton for the liberty of unlicensed printing to the Parliament of England Banned films Book burning Censorship The Roman Catholic Church's Index Librorum Prohibitorum International Freedom of Expression Exchange List of banned authors during the Third Reich List of banned writers List of controversial books List of most commonly challenged books in the U.S. References External links www.bannedmagazine.com, the journal of censorship and secrecy List of books challenged in Canada Minneapolis Public Library: Banned Books Week The most frequently banned books in the early 1990s HarperCollins books that have been challenged Judy Blume talks about censorship Original stories by censored writers Fahrenheit 451 Banned Book Blog: comprehensive list of links Banned cartoons Timeline of banned books in the United States Links related to Banned Books Week and book burning Banned books online Banned Books and Censorship: Information and Resources The Forbidden Library: Banned and Challenged Books Castro and the ACLU v Miami's Book 'Ban', by Humberto Fontova, author of "Fidel: Hollywood's Favorite Tyrant", 8 August 2006