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- The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck, 1939
- Kern County, California has the great honor both of being the setting of Steinbeck’s novel and being the first place where it was banned (1939). Objections to profanity—especially goddamn and the like—and sexual references continued from then into the 1990s. It is a work with international banning appeal: the book was barred in Ireland in the 50s and a group of booksellers in Turkey were taken to court for “spreading propaganda” in 1973.
We were not allowed to read anything Steinbeck in my public high school as he and this is a real quote "did not present California in a positive light." Cannery Row was considered obscene due to gasp prostitutes not being demonized as evil.
Do the world a favor this week and read a banned book.