Volume XLVI: Bookselling Is not a Crime…And Yet
The history—and present—of criminalized booksellers
Introduction
Saturday February 22, 2025 was #BooksellingIsNotACrimeDay, a day meant to spotlight the right to read and support The Educational Bookshop in Jerusalem. Throughout history, bookselling has been criminalized, right alongside the censoring of books.
On February 9, 2025, Mahmoud and Ahmad Muna, booksellers at the two Educational Bookshops in Jerusalem, were arrested by the Israeli police and accused of inciting terrorism. The bookstores serve as a space to uplift Palestinian culture through literature and cafe offerings.
“Every day booksellers, librarians, publishers and writers are censored in almost every country around the world. Some are jailed, some see their work banned and others are driven out of business by subtler means. We must rally to protect the freedom to read, which includes the freedom to run a bookshop. Booksellers are not criminals. Instead, like all booksellers, Mahmoud and Ahmad Muna are a beacon of light in this dark world,” wrote Sophie O’Reirdan of Pluto Press.
And this is exactly what Pluto Press and Saqi Books aimed to showcase on February 22: that despite them being beacons—or, often, because they are beacons—booksellers are criminalized. And with the Trump administration’s various executive orders on gender identity and the Department of Education calling book bans a “hoax,” would it really be a surprise if bookselling—just like librarianship—grows more dangerous?
So much of the media attention on book bans centers schools and libraries—and understandably so, given the rate at which challenges are being brought forward in these spaces. But in this newsletter, we’re sharing examples through history and the present of bookselling as a crime, as well as spotlighting what folks did then to fight back and what we can do now.
A Deeper Look
Bookselling dates back centuries, all the way to BCE. Supposedly, as libraries started and wealthy individuals desired personal libraries, bookselling grew into an official profession. Censorship has also been happening since this time, with empires aiming to police its people and ensure those in power stayed in power. And while not technically bookselling, we know the distribution of materials that go against those in power has been condemned by empires and countries across the globe.
In 17th century France, King Louis XIV attempted to censor bookselling, confiscating any books that criticized the government and church. In 1959, Los Angeles bookstore owner Eleazor Smith was convicted for selling “obscene” and “indecent” books. (It didn’t even matter if Eleazor was unaware of what was in all the books he was selling). In 1984, officers raided London’s beloved Gay’s the Word bookstore, as well as the homes of store employees. They were charged with “conspiracy to import indecent and obscene material.” In 1985, an amendment to Virginia statute made it illegal for any store—including bookstores—to “knowingly display” products that are “harmful to juveniles” in areas accessible to teens and children.
And we can’t talk about criminalized bookselling without discussing the historic surveillance of Black-owned bookstores. In 1835, a mob burnt down the first (recorded) Black-owned bookstore in the U.S. Owned by David Ruggles, an organizer behind what would eventually become the Underground Railroad, the store was stocked with abolitionist and feminist texts, also housing a reading room and lending library. The space was free for city visitors—a way of telling those escaping enslavement that they were safe in the store (which even ended up helping Frederick Douglass).
In 1960, Marcus Books opened in San Francisco, named after Marcus Garvey. The store not only sold books, but served as a meeting place. In 1976, they opened a second location in Oakland and began facing threats, in part due to the FBI’s COINTELPRO program which formed shortly after the Black Panther Party started. COINTELPRO claimed to operate to “neutralize” political dissent, targeting “radical” national groups. The FBI director put out orders to “locate and identify black extremist and/or African-type bookstores in its territory and open separate discreet investigations on each to determine if it is extremist in nature.” They even aimed to recruit Black individuals to spy on and surveil these stores. (Yep.)
(There’s so much more to the surveillance of Black-owned bookstores, which you can learn about in this 2018 article from The Atlantic. Tiny Rep Books also has an upcoming release—Black-Owned: The Revolutionary Life of the Black Bookstore—by NBC News Reporter, Char Adams, which you can preorder.)
More recently, a 2023 law in Texas aimed to require bookstores to rate and review books according to “sexual content” in order to sell to school libraries. Those that didn’t comply would be censured and prohibited from selling books to schools. In Arkansas, a law aimed to criminalize booksellers and librarians for providing “harmful” materials to minors. Such (vaguely deemed) materials would have to be moved to areas inaccessible by children. Those who were charged could face up to one year in prison.
And just days after Israeli police raided and arrested employees of the Educational Bookshop, police raided bookstores across Kashmir, seized 668 books, and ordered employees to stop selling them going forward. Police claimed they are preventing “the circulation of banned literature.”
Now, of course all of this is on top of censorship in other forms throughout history and the present—preventing enslaved individuals from learning how to read or write, book burnings by the Nazis, the Comstock Act, and the ongoing bans school and public libraries are facing, as well as threats to librarians’ safety. And, of course, there’s “soft censorship”—when something is not outright censored (such as when a book is removed from a library), but still made hard to access or otherwise unavailable. Or when other white supremacist actions, such as gentrification or “urban renewal,” force Black and Brown-owned businesses to shutter.
Ways to Respond
We’ve spoken at length before on how readers can fight book bans, specifically the importance of speaking out at school and library board meetings. But fighting the criminalization of booksellers can’t follow the exact same formula; these are independently-owned businesses, nothing reliant on community taxes. (Of course, this doesn’t mean bans in schools and libraries are “justified” in any way because they are funded by taxes.)
Click through many of the links connected to the examples above, and you’ll learn about their ensuing legal battles. In response to Los Angeles bookseller Eleazor Smith’s conviction, Smith vs. California ruled that it violated the first amendment rights of the seller. Virginia v. American Booksellers Association ruled that booksellers have to take “reasonable” steps to prevent “harmful” materials from juvenile access—but not absolute prevention. In Texas and Arkansas, both library and bookseller advocacy organizations, as well as organizations like the ACLU, were at the forefront of fighting the censorship attempts.
Communities have also rallied behind stores, and many stores, such as LGBTQIA+-owned shops, have adapted during times of difficulty to stay open—taking on additional revenue streams via cafes or events, housing a selection of new genres, or even fundraising. But also, prejudice and racism have led many to not—a key reason why Marcus Books had to close their San Francisco location. (Now, the city no longer has a Black-owned bookstore.)
When booksellers in France were instructed to no longer sell books that Louis XIV’s rule deemed inappropriate, they developed a code system to ensure that these books could still be purchased. When neighborhoods lack access to independent bookstores, mobile stores like Bronx Bound Books have helped make stories more accessible and affordable. When bans prevent incarcerated individuals from accessing books, many bookstores have launched models to help get stories to them.
As readers, we can help bookstores do all of the above:
We can fundraise for legal battles, spread the word about hearings, and show up in court to demonstrate we are on their side. We might even look into providing or signing onto an amicus brief.
We can protest, and contact our representatives at a local and state level to voice our opinions.
We can divest from Amazon and shop directly from independent bookstores (in person and online), and turn to Amazon alternatives for our digital reading. LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, and disabled-owned stores especially need support amidst Trump’s legislation and book banning’s focus on gender identity, sexuality, and white supremacy.
We can support movements like #BooksellingIsNotACrimeDay, spreading the word on social media and in our communities, sharing fundraisers, and encouraging our indies to participate.
Final Musings
History repeats itself; as we can see from these few examples of attacks on bookstores, they’ve happened time and time again. What we’re seeing today is not new, even if the tactics surrounding the criminalization of booksellers might be, and even if they’re happening at an increased level.
But those in the past didn’t have all the tools we have today to fight these ridiculous attempts at censorship. We have the platforms to build mass movements, and the knowledge of all those who have come before us. Academic Robert Darnton argues that the circulation of forbidden books played a pivotal role in the launching of the French Revolution, as people learned more about corruption in the government—which comes as no surprise. There is a reason why many governments encourage book bans and censorship, after all. We too must keep sharing what we learn through the books we read, and working to ensure that everyone has access to stories. Reading is, after all, a catalyst for revolution.
We will be back in a few weeks with a dive into a recent read and resources for another prompt in our Readership Challenge. In the meantime, make sure to check out our reading-themed prints for a cause, free downloads (wallpapers, templates, and more), and our exclusive downloads for newsletter subscribers (with password newsletterdownloads). If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, don’t hesitate to get in touch via email, the comments below, or Instagram DM.
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