A recent answer stated that the Wizard Of Oz books had been banned in some States. Where is the evidence?

Question

I have searched the net and can only find that some librarians do not stock the book for various reasons.

Answer 1

Here it is:

"Have the Oz books ever been banned, edited, or censored?

Sadly, yes. There have been several recent attempts to remove The Wizard of Oz from school libraries or reading lists. None have been successful, so far as I've been able to discover, although some school students in Tennessee and Louisiana have been excused from reading the book on religious grounds. Some reasons critics have given, for example, is that the book depicts good witches, which they claim is theologically impossible, and that animals are elevated to the same level as humans. And as stated in the previous question, some public libraries used to not carry the Oz books for various reasons. While The Wizard of Oz couldn't be found on the shelves of the Chicago library system as early as 1928, two of the most notorious incidents took place in the 1950s, when Senator Joseph McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee were active and saw Communism in all aspects of life. Many libraries removed a number of books, including the Oz books, for being too "radical." Fantasy was also felt to be harmful to children at the time, and many believed that children's books should be more educational. In Detroit in 1957, Director Ralph Ulveling admitted that The Wizard of Oz had not been available in the main library's children's room or any branch for thirty years, as it was not well-written, "the story relies on fantastic rather than fanciful happenings," the story didn't build to any sort of climax, "there is too much exaggeration in carrying out each detail, [and is] old-fashioned and out-dated...It does not meet present day standards of book selection for children." On a catalog card for the book in 1939, a Detroit library employee wrote, "[T]he reader's mind is not fired by this type of imagination...no need to reinstate this book." After this revelation, the Detroit Times newspaper serialized The Wizard of Oz so children could read it. In Florida in 1959, State Librarian Dorothy Dodd sent out to libraries a list of books that were not to be purchased, not to be accepted as gifts, not to be processed and not to be circulated. The list included Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan books, F. W. Dixon's Hardy Boys series, H. R. Garis' Uncle Wiggily books, Laura Lee Hope's Bobbsey Twins books, Carolyn Keene's Nancy Drew mysteries, all of Horatio Alger's titles, and Victor Appleton's Tom Swift books. But at the very top of the list were L. Frank Baum's Oz books. Dodd said on the list: "The presence of books of this type on the library shelves indicate [sic] waste of time and money on the part of the librarian and lack of interest in the welfare of the children of the community." Other communities that also didn't have the Oz books in their libraries at the time include Oklahoma, Washington, D. C., and Toronto. Fortunately, complaints, shifting attitudes, and the more open-minded 1960s caused many libraries to rethink their policies, and they are now generally available. The Detroit Library even hosted a major Oz exhibit in 1982.

More recently, Books of Wonder and their publishing partners have been criticized by some for altering two of its reprints of Baum's books. The original versions contained depictions that were seen as amusing in Baum's day, but the times have changed, and they are now seen as offensive African or African-American stereotypes. In The Patchwork Girl of Oz, there is a living phonograph that plays a song that originally contained the line, "Ah wants mah Lulu, mah coal-black Lulu;" this was changed to, "Ah want my Lulu, mah cross-eyed Lulu" by Books of Wonder. A later, similar line not only kept the change from coal-black to cross-eyed, it changes loves to the more grammatically correct love. Later in the same book, the travelers meet a band of people called Tottenhots, an obvious play on the Hottentot peoples of South Africa. Some references to these people's dusky skin color and other aspects of their appearance were edited or removed, and one picture of a Tottenhot was not included. In Rinkitink in Oz, another picture of a Tottenhot was removed. Both pictures unflatteringly showed the Tottenhots as stereotypical savage Africans. Fortunately, none of these changes affect the stories at all, and many Oz fans accept them as necessary in today's world. Others, of course, do not, and have said so rather vocally. The Books of Wonder editions are the only ones to have made these particular changes; the original texts and illustrations are currently available from Del Rey and Dover, among other publishers. The affected pages are also available for viewing or downloading at http://www.eskimo.com/~tiktok/wftw1.html. Some other books published by Books of Wonder that could have been changed, notably The Royal Book of Oz and The Silver Princess of Oz, were not altered, but do include a cautionary warning in the front. These books were published solely by Books of Wonder, without a publishing partner. Another altered text was in the 2005 compilation of all fourteen of Baum's Oz books, plus The Little Wizard Stories of Oz collection, issued by Shoes and Ships and Sealing Wax in 2005. This edition contained no pictures, but did omit the phonograph's song, and deleted parts of the descriptions of the Tottenhots in both The Patchwork Girl of Oz and Rinkitink in Oz."

Answer 2

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Answer 3

This is not an answer but a thank-you. This was a great question and an excellent answer by johnslat. I really enjoyed reading it.