New York Public Library – Opening of Banned Books Exhibit – November 30, 1942 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
Not that banned books were anything new in America, it was the extra added aspect of what was going on in Germany since the beginnings of the Nazi era that sparked universal outrage among the allies. Only now we were at war and the whole aura of censorship and the willful banning and destruction of many seemingly ban-proof examples of the written word, including The Bible, became symbols and another shade of propaganda which prompted America to act and join in the fight.
The New York Public Library, for their part staged an exhibit showing many examples of the books which became incinerated by mobs and the authors who became objects of hate – and targets for assassination and concentration camps. It was a miracle that many contemporary authors from France, Germany and Italy (as well as other countries overrun by Nazi domination) managed to escape, many to the U.S. and many to Britain.
But it spoke to a bigger picture – that even though we could wag our fingers at Germany for wanton destruction of libraries and arbitrary arrests of anyone found reading the works of Thomas Mann or Erich Maria Remarque, we were not necessarily models of artistic expression ourselves. We had banned books too – lots of books. And even though we weren’t so overt as to stage mass burnings, a banned book was a banned book and it’s availability had suddenly vanished from bookstores and library shelves.
This ceremony and addresses for the opening of New York Public Library’s exhibit of Banned Books took place on the steps to the main entrance to the Library, which was also site of a War Bond Drive sharing the space that same day. The whole ceremony was broadcast live by WNYC and WOR on November 30, 1942 and sadly misses an address by Mayor LaGuardia who was not available for the ceremony.
Banned Books – an issue for other reasons in 1942 – still an issue now.
History is constant.
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