Banned Books By the Numbers
by Staff -- Publishers Weekly, 9/26/2005
547: Number of book challenges received by the ALA in 2004
458: Number of book challenges received by the ALA in 2003
515: Number of book challenges received by the ALA in 2002
448: Number of book challenges received by the ALA in 2001
6,364: Total number of book challenges received by the ALA, 1990–2000
1,607: Number of challenges based on sexually explicit material
1,427: Number of challenges based on offensive language
737: Number of challenges based on violence
5: Number of Judy Blume's books among the 100 most frequently challenged books
15: Number of years James Joyce's Ulysses was banned in America (1918–1933)
217: Number of years it took for the U.S. Supreme Court to clear John Cleland's Fanny Hill of obscenity charges
1881: Year Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass was banned in Boston
