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'No More Dangerous than a Banana Split'
© American Library Association 1983

''Teachers and librarians have been unbelievably grand and honorable and patriotic, and also intelligent, during all the recent attacks on the First Amendment to our Constitution, which says, among other things, that all Americans are free to read or publish whatever they please.''

Kurt Vonnegut made this statement when he accepted the newly established Freedom to Read Award at the Chicago Public Library's Literary Arts Ball, Dec. 4, 1983.

The novelist, who has spoken out repeatedly against the suppression of books, held the award as Playboy Enterprises President Christie Hefner, honorary chairperson of the event, looked on. The gathering was sponsored by the Friends of the Library as its major fundraising event of the year.

Vonnegut's impassioned speech included these remarks also:

''If I have been censored a lot, then teachers and librarians have had to defend my books a lot. I do not imagine for a microsecond that they have done this because what I write is so true and beautiful. Many of them may hate what I write, even though I am, at my worst, no more dangerous than a banana split. They defend my books because they are lawabiding and they understand, as did our Founding Fathers, that it is vital in a democracy that its voters have access to every sort of opinion and information.''