Amboy Dukes and other banned works

[Joel S. Berson]

At 9/6/2008 11:16 PM, Paul wrote:
>The chapter of heavy petting in the movie theater made it a best seller
>in my area and in my mind.  It was one of those that you got told to
>read pages 53 and 230  and kept well hidden from your mother.  Lurid
>cover illustration with lots of cleavage, what more could a teenager ask
>for?

Salinger -- which I did (both ask for, from a female classmate with
whom I happened to ride home on the bus, and keep well hidden from my
mother, although that was not too difficult as I read it that night
under the covers with a flashlight, and returned it the next
morning).  But I remember _The Amboy Dukes_ too.

Checking on its date, when I type 'Amboy Dukes" into a title search
in Harvard's catalog, it comes up with just two items: that and
something titled _Literature Suppressed on Social Grounds_, by Dawn
B. Sova (Facts on File, 2006).  The Harvard catalog seems to list all
the titles it discusses -- which also include "Catcher", but some
mystifying titles as well, such as _The Adventures of Sherlock
Holmes_,._The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin_, _James and the
Giant Peach_, and the _Doctor Doolittle_ series and _Gorilla in the
Mist_.  (The last two must be there because of their uppity,
intelligent animals.*)

Joel

* Actually, I would imagine "Gorillas" has some primate sex in it.

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