-
1 CE
Introduction
Books have been burned for many reasons throughout history, though most link back to the censorship of cultural, religious, or political views. These are some of the books that have been burned through history around the world. This timeline includes books that have been banned for being anti-Islamic, homoerotic, written by socialists, and other reasons motivated by the ultimate fact that the books opposed the burners' view of what was proper. -
1525
Bibles Burned
In 1525 six thousand copies of the New Testament were smuggled into England, only to be burned by the Church who had determined that the Bible should only be read in Latin. -
Martin Luther's German Bible Translation
Martin Luther's German translation of the Bible was burned in Germany at the order of the Pope. -
Call of the Wild
Jack London's Call of the Wild was one of many books burned by the Nazi's in this year, presumably because of Jack London's socialist views. They also burned books by John Dos Passos, Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Ernest Hemingway, Helen Keller, Lenin, Thomas Mann, Karl Marx, Erich Maria Remarque, Upton Sinclair, Stalin, and Leon Trotsky, and targeted media produced by Jewish creators. -
Iran
Iranian forces defeated the Kurdish government and burned all the Kurdish language books they could find, as well as closing Kurdish presses and banning the teaching of the language. -
Birmingham New York Comic Burnings
With the fear the comic books were spreading depravity amongst the youth, citizens of Birmingham went around collecting comic books and burned them. -
The Sexual Revolution and others by Wilhelm Reich
On two occasions, piles of Wilhelm Reich's books were burned, with an estimated total of over six tonnes of his books and papers in New York alone. These burnings were overseen by the US Food and Drug Administration, and related to charges related to his studies as a psychiatrist into human sexuality. The books burned included The Sexual Revolution, Character Analysis, and The Mass Psychology of Fascism. -
Slaughterhouse Five and Deliverance
A school in Drake North Dakota ordered objectionable books to be thrown into the furnace. This included several copies of Slaughterhouse Five and several copies of Deliverance by James Dickey. -
The Satanic Verses
Salmon Rushdie's novel the Satanic Verses was burned in the UK and Toronto for being considered anti-Islamic. -
Poems by Abu Nuwas
The Egyptian Ministry of Culture reportedly burned over 6,000 copies of poems by Abu Nuwas, who was known for writing homoerotic verses. -
Harry Potter
There have been multiple burnings of HP books in the US, but in 2001 the Harvest Assembly of God Church in Pennsylvania went public for burning these books, presumably in objection to their contents of witchcraft. -
Burning at Zhenyuan County Library in Gansu Province
In an attempt to meet a mandate from the Ministry of Education to remove illegal books, religious publications, and books and articles with biases, library officials burned 65 books in front of their library and posted a photograph and report of the incident as proof online. (The public burning, rather than an approved destruction method, did receive backlash from authorities.)
