Forever... | Historical Context

Forever... Historical Context

Censorship

Blume's Forever . . . was not the author's first novel to be banned. Her Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret (1970) was banned for its discussion of bras and budding breasts. Over the years as an author who was censored, Blume became involved politically, promoting freedom of the press. The impulse to censor and the resistance to censorship is not new. Indeed, as early as 1660, Sir William Avenant in Britain censored seven of Shakespeare's plays because he considered them too bawdy, or vulgar. Hitler burned books that were perceived to threaten or contradict ideas promoted by the Third Reich. In the United States, many books have been banned that were later widely accepted as classics: Winesburg, Ohio (1919) by Sherwood Anderson; Catcher in the Rye (1951) by J. D. Salinger; Portnoy's Complaint (1969) by Philip Roth; and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970) by Maya...
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