Book-banning controversy tears at souls of librarians

Anonymous Patron writes Book-banning controversy tears at souls of librarians When libraries and bookstores encourage patrons to read literature that has drawn the censors’ matchbooks, they tend to highlight classics. Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is a popular ambassador for intellectual freedom. So is J.D. Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye.”

But toiling for free speech doesn’t always align one with high culture. Before Madonna took to writing colorfully illustrated children’s books, she published a wildly controversial bit of erotica called “Sex” (also colorfully illustrated). It had free-speech-loving librarians “defending a book maybe even they didn’t want to defend,” says Holly Carroll, deputy director at Cleveland Public Library.”