Deliverance (book)

Medium: Literature

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Artist: James Dickey

Confronting Bodies: Cindy Hochstetler and Bismarck School Board

Dates of Action: 8/2/93

Location: Bismarck, North Dakota

Description of Artwork: ‘’Deliverance’’ is a story about four men on a canoe trip that must struggle to survive in the Georgia wilderness.

The Incident: Cindy Hochstetler worked to get ‘’Delievrance’’ along with several other "shocking and pornographic" books out of Hughes Junior High School (ND) classrooms and libraries. In April, Hochstetler filed complaints against ‘’Delievrance’’ as well as Vision Quest, by Terry Davis, and Sex Education, by Jenny Davis. She also lodged protests against seventh-grade classrooms use of Dead Birds Singing, by Marc Talbert, and Jason and Marceline, by Jerry Spinelle. In late July librarians agreed to move Deliverance along with Vision Quest to high school libraries.

Results of Incident: Both Vision Quest and Deliverance were removed. On August 2, a review committee voted unanimously to keep Sex Education in the library and 8-1 to keep the Talbert and Spinelle books on the seventh grade reading list. "I'll let the Sex Education book go, " Hochstetler said after the meeting. "I just wanted a group of nine people to review it." but she appealed the other two books. On August 24, however, Superintendent Lowell Jensen ruled in favor of keeping the books. Hochstetler said she would appeal that decision to the Bismarck School Board.

Source: Office for Intellectual Freedom, American Library Association