Free Expression

Chris Finan In this column, Chris Finan, president of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, explains why booksellers should care about what happens to Robert J. Stevens, a Virginia man who has been convicted of creating videos that contain scenes of dogfighting.

Last Sunday's Freedom to Read Foundation 40th Anniversary Gala in the new Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago was both a celebration and a moving tribute to Judith F. Krug, director of the American Library Association's Office of Intellectual Freedom from its founding in 1967 to her death in April of stomach cancer.

ABFFE Welcomes New Board MembersThe two newest members of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression Board of Directors are Becky Anderson and Dan Cullen. Anderson was elected to a one-year term as ABFFE vice president. She is part of the fifth generation of Andersons at the helm of Anderson's Bookshops in Naperville, Aurora, and Downers Grove, Illinois. Anderson is also the vice president of the American Booksellers Association.

Last week, Tom Lowenburg of New Orleans' Octavia Books testified against a Louisiana Senate Bill (S.B. 152) that would authorize civil suits against booksellers who are accused of selling a book that depicts nudity to a minor.

On May 21, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression announced that 2020 Vision USA, a Sarasota, Florida, direct importer of reading glasses and sunglasses, has agreed to contribute $1 to ABFFE for every pair of glasses it sells to independent bookstores.

This week, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression joined with the National Coalition Against Censorship, the Association of American Publishers, and PEN American Center to send a letter to the West Bend (Wisconsin) Common Council criticizing its dismissal of four members of the West Bend Library Board who refused to remove controversial books from the young ad

News of the death of Judith F. Krug, the head of the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom, on Saturday, April 11, has been met with an outpouring of tributes throughout the book industry and beyond. Krug died at age 69 of stomach cancer.

On April 7, the American Booksellers Association, American Library Association, Association of American Publishers, and PEN American Center sent a memo urging Congress to exempt bookstores and library records from Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act.

HarperStudio has partnered with PEN American Center to publish Burn This Book, a collection of essays about censorship and literature in response to oppression, which goes on sale May 12. Edited by Toni Morrison, the volume features an A-list of contributors including Paul Auster, Nadine Gordimer, Pico Iyer, Francine Prose, Salman Rushdie, and John Updike.