Last week, after GalleyCat ran a story about reports that when Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, she tried to fire the town librarian, many readers pointed out (correctly) that the list of books that Palin was said to have considered banning couldn’t possibly be accurate, because several books on it hadn’t even been published when Palin took office.
The local paper up in Wasilla has set the record straight, reposting a 1996 article about the library tug-of-war which makes no mention of any specific books that Palin had in mind when she discussed the issue of censorship with librarian Mary Ellen Emmons. In fact, the conversation starts out innocuously enough, with Palin asking Emmons “how she would respond to censorship,” to which Emmons replied, “I will fight anyone who tries to dictate what books can go on the library shelves.” It was only after a second exchange, in which Palin asked Emmons “if she could live with censorship of library books,” that Emmons began to seriously consider the possibility that Palin’s interest might not be purely hypothetical—but even then she makes no reference to Palin objecting to any book in particular.
(via Jacket Copy; photo: Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman)