Book bans and challenges: October 22, 2025

Here's the latest news on book bans, challenges, and other literary obstacles.

The classics

• The British Library has apologized, so to speak, to writer Oscar Wilde by restoring his library card, which — in the custom of the times — was revoked upon his conviction for gross indecency (Literary Hub). 

• The heirs of French writer Marcel Proust are auctioning off nine hundred manuscripts, including a draft of In Search of Lost Time in which Proust recalls dipping not a madeleine but a piece of stale bread in tea, at a cost of 7.7 million euros (about $9 million) — and France's national library is fundraising in hopes of being the winning bidder (The New York Times).

The wins ...

• A federal judge has ordered the Department of Defense to restore books about gender and race to five school libraries on military bases; twelve students on these bases had driven the First Amendment violation lawsuit (NPR). 

• Meet the founders of an Iowa City high school's banned books club; the students established their group in response to a state censorship law — meaning their school couldn't officially recognize the club — and have seen their group endure as courts continue to block implementation of the state law (Iowa Public Radio).

... and the setbacks

• A veteran Ohio teacher, however, has not found such legal relief; a district court dismissed the lawsuit she filed over a suspension that was prompted by reports that she had "controversial" materials not on her curriculum but simply in her classroom library (Literary Hub).

• R. Nassor continues years of reporting on the rising cost of books, with a focus on the disappearance of mass market paperbacks, which are the cheapest physical format available to readers (Book Riot).

• A Virginia library made headlines for telling staff to throw away donated books, rather than giving them to the Friends of Library group to possibly sell (Book Riot).