Dickens, the Waverly novels obscene, you say?

I've been amusing myself, off and on lately, by taking a look at a few cases back in the good old days when Iowans turned their attention to the imaginary threats presented by books and other publications, then attempted to (or actually did) ban or burn them. Much as Iowa's governor, Republican legislators and an outfit that calls itself Moms for Liberty have been doing lately as they target Iowa's public school and community libraries.

So I was interested in this brief story, headlined "Declared Unfit for Reading," published in The Chariton Democrat of Nov. 29, 1895.

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The destruction of the literary works of Dickens and Thackery and Sir Walter Scott's Waverly novels as immoral, obscene and unfit to be in a township library may not be thought possible in the great state of Iowa, with its 2,000,000 citizens, whose superior general intelligence is acknowledged and admired throughout civilization, and where the degree of illiteracy is the smallest in the entire world. But it is true --- at least different citizens of the community in and about which it happened make positive declarations to that effect.

It is said to have been done by the township trustees of Richland township, Dickinson county. Spirit Lake is in that township. The story goes that a committee of two, named Wade and Cushman, examined the works of the great novelists, condemned them and destroyed them as immoral. It seems like a dream, but the informants are men of character and prominence, and it is believed to be safe to make the statement that the books mentioned were taken from the library and burned, and that the "reformers" went about their work in the same spirit as did the witch burners and the destroyers of early Christians.

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A similar version of the same story was published during late 1895 in several Iowa newspapers, but I tracked the source to a very long piece written by Fred W. Faulkes, editor of The Cedar Rapids Gazette, and published in his edition of Sept. 18, 1895.

Mr. Faulkes had returned recently from an outing to the resorts of Spirit Lake and informed readers that he had investigated the story personally while there --- although the case reported had occurred 3-4 years earlier.

In fairness to the good people of Dickinson County, I found no reports of the incident elsewhere --- so we'll just have to rely on Mr. Faulkes' veracity.

The original story is extremely long --- consuming at least three broadsheet columns and including a lengthy quote from Dickens as Mr. Faulkes meanders leisurely toward his conclusion, which included the following paragraph:

"So it is no doubt true, from all I can learn, than in the closing years of the nineteenth century, in a section of the country moulded most beautifully by the same God that created the tender spirit of Charles Dickens and gave those great writers inspiration for the creation of literary efforts that have charmed mankind through all these years, and given light and sunshine and joy and pleasure to numberless millions of homes throughout the civilized world; in that Richland township, a township properly named because of the fertility and richness of its soil, on those most beautiful prairies, where the heart of every passerby is gladdened by the sights beheld, are found people so lacking in tolerance or so fanatical and thoughtless that they will place the destroying hand upon the works of some of the world's richest writers."