Sales soar for graphic novel ‘Maus’ after its banning in Tennessee

NEW YORK: Just days after the banning of ‘Maus’ by a Tennessee school district made national news, two editions of Art Spiegelman’s Pulitzer Prize winning graphic novel about the Holocaust have reached the top 20 on Amazon.com and are in limited supply.

‘Maus’ was No 12 on Amazon as of early Friday evening, and was not available for delivery until mid-February. ‘The Complete Maus,’ which includes a second volume, was No 9 and out of stock.

Neither book was in the top 1,000 at the beginning of the week.

Earlier this month, the McMinn County School Board in Tennessee voted to remove ‘Maus’ due to “inappropriate language” and an illustration of a nude woman, according to minutes from a board meeting. Spiegelman’s autobiographical book, winner of a Pulitzer in 1992, tells of his father’s experiences as a Holocaust survivor.

In an interview, Spiegelman told CNBC he was “baffled” by the school board’s decision and called the action “Orwellian.”

“It’s leaving me with my jaw open, like, ‘What?’” he said.

Spiegelman, 73, said the board appeared from transcripts of its meeting to have “totally focused on some bad words that are in the book.”

The board’s decision came amid a wave of conservative-sponsored legislation and other actions to pull books from schools, with other banned works including Toni Morrison’s ‘The Bluest Eye’ and Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’