Obscene in the Extreme
The Burning and Banning of John Steinbeck's the "Grapes of Wrath"
Rick Wartzman(Author)
PublicAffairs,U.S. (Publisher)
Published on 2. September 2008
Book
Hardback
320 pages
978-1-58648-331-9 (ISBN)
Description
Few books have caused as big a stir as John Steinbecks The Grapes of Wrath, when it was published in April 1939. By May, it was the nations number one bestseller, but in Kern County, California-the Joads newfound home-the book was burned publicly and banned from library shelves. Obscene in the Extreme tells the remarkable story behind this fit of censorship. When W. B. Bill Camp, a giant cotton and potato grower, presided over its burning in downtown Bakersfield, he declared: We are angry, not because we were attacked but because we were attacked by a book obscene in the extreme sense of the word. But Gretchen Knief, the Kern County librarian, bravely fought back. If that book is banned today, what book will be banned tomorrow?Obscene in the Extreme serves as a window into an extraordinary time of upheaval in America-a time when, as Steinbeck put it, there seemed to be a revolution ...going on.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Illustrations
Illustrations, ports.
Dimensions
Height: 236 mm
Width: 156 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-58648-331-9 (9781586483319)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
09/2009
PublicAffairs
€9.49
Available for download