The four-volume Banned Books collection focuses on more than 400 works that have been censored for their political, social, religious, or erotic content -- in the United States and around the world -- from biblical times to the present day.

Works have been chosen for their literary or historical significance, including their role in the history of censorship. Most are read in middle- and high-school curricula as well as in university courses; some have been the focus of major national or international campaigns; and all were either written in English or are available in English translations.

Banned Books: Literature Suppressed on Social Grounds discusses writings that have been banned over the centuries because they offended or merely ignored official truths; challenged widely held assumptions; or contained ideas or language unacceptable to a state, religious institution, or private moral watchdog.

Works covered include:
-- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
-- The adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
-- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
-- As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner
-- Being There, Jerzy Kosinski
-- Camille, Alexandre Dumas, Jr.
-- The Color Purple, Alice Walker
-- Deliverance, James Dickey
-- East of Eden, John Steinbeck
-- Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
-- A Farewell to Arms, ErnestHemingway
-- Gargantua and Pantagruel, Francois Rabelais
-- Howl and Other Poems, Allen Ginsberg
-- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou
-- Jaws, Peter Benchley
-- Junky, William S. Burroughs
-- Of Time and the River, Thomas Wolfe
-- One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey
-- The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
-- Soul on Ice, Eldridge Cleaver
-- Strange Fruit, Lillian Smith.