Banned Books

Fanny Hill

John Cleland

Often with banned books the publication story is as interesting as the book itself, and Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, or Fanny Hill as it became known, is no exception. It was penned by John Cleland..

Ulysses

James Joyce

James Joyce's Ulysses is a conundrum of a book: some say it's unreadable stream-of-conscious gobbledegook, while others claim it to be the best book ever written. The 900 page work details a single da..

Leaves of Grass

Walt Whitman

Leaves of Grass is a collection of poems by Walt Whitman, which was self-published in 1855. It has its origins in an essay written by Ralph Waldo Emerson 10 years earlier titled The Poet, which called..

Married Love

Marie Carmichael Stopes

Married Love, or Love in Marriage by Dr. Marie Carmichael Stopes was published in March 1918 in England, was immediately sensational, sold out quickly, and was banned by the US Customs Service as "obs..

The Communist Manifesto

Karl Marx

The Communist Manifesto is attributed to both Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, though Marx gets most of the credit for writing one of the world's most politically significant documents. It details the ..