Everett T. Moore - Issues of Freedom in American Libraries

In Issues of Freedom in American Libraries (1964), Moore explores different circumstances of censorship in the United States. Moore notes the popularity in the Soviet Union of Ray Bradbury's book, Fahrenheit 451. This book often came under attack in the US during the McCarthy era because it was believed to be a direct criticism of McCarthyism. This initially made the book quite popular in the USSR with some 500,000 pirated copies in circulation. The Soviets immediately censored the book after they discovered it was actually a criticism of "tyranny over the mind at any time or place."

Moore continued his research on these issues and continued to be closely involved with libraries on a local and national level in the following capacities:

• President of California Library Association (1964)
• Member of the American Library Association Council (1962-1966)
• Chairman of the American Library Association Board (1966-1972)
• Editor of the Newsletter on the Intellectual Freedom (1960-1961)
• Associate University Librarian at UCLA for Public Service Acting Department Head (1971-1973)
• Vice President of the Freedom to Read Foundation (? – 1974)

Moore was well aware that librarians would often be at the center of this debate and acknowledged the difficulty in differentiating between serious literature and what can fairly be described as obscene. In Moore's book, Issues of Freedom in American Libraries, he explores the divided opinions of these issues. Moore quoted Reverend Wright of Texas who stated that, "all America's problems will be solved if he (i.e. Reverend Wright) will be permitted to select the books that should be read."Some of the books Wright objected to included:

• George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four
• John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath
• Aldous Huxley's Brave New World

According to Moore, there are some psychiatrists, police officers and social workers who have insisted on the link between "reading obscene literature" and "criminality."It was often argued that "serious mental disorders or psychological" problems were at the root of the deviant behaviorhowever these cases admittedly did not include "average adults."Moore explored the flip side of this argument by referencing Justice William O. Douglas' pamphlet, Freedom of the Mind.Douglas questions why we "…would treat all adults as sick and unable to withstand exposure to the world of ideas."Douglas further questions why Communism is censored without even allowing US citizens to learn the principles of what it means. Why not educate ourselves instead of limit our knowledge? Douglas describes censorship as forcing, "the public to live up to the censor's code of morality…"