The first book ban took place in 1637 in Quincy, Massachusetts after Thomas Morton critiqued Puritan customs and power structures. In 2025, the act of banning books in the Bay State is unthinkable, but not impossible.

Financial assistance and grants for public schools and libraries are being impacted by the Trump administration’s current freeze in funding across the public sphere. Libraries depend on federal funds to pay for statewide services, like databases and e-books, that connect every library.

Along with a decrease in funding, conservative parties are pushing for legislation to censor and ban books featuring LGBTQIA+ issues, gender history and discussions of race or racism. Impacted titles include The Handmaid’s Tale, The Color Purple, Slaughterhouse-Five, The Kite Runner, 1984, Looking For Alaska, Sold and others.

According to the American Booksellers Association Right to Read, PEN America’s definition of a ban is “as any action taken against a book based on its content and as a result of parent or community challenges administrative decisions, or in response to direct or threatened action by lawmakers or other government officials.”

Though unconstitutional, book bans and challenges are still possible, as public schools are considered “limited public forums.” The government and school boards can impose certain restrictions on speech that must be reasonable, viewpoint-neutral and serve a legitimate government purpose, according to the California Department of Justice Office of the Attorney General.

As a loss of federal funding and violations of constitutional rights threaten education and speech, hidden in every corner of their small towns, local bookstores remain steadfast in their work.

Bill and Ted Clements, father and son, run Broadside Bookshop in Northampton. According to Ted, while the funding may negatively impact the schools and libraries, “Here in this town especially, we’re in a bit of a bubble where we don’t really feel that impact as much.”

“There are not a lot of regulations [in the sense] that nobody is coming in to check the shelves,” Amelia Adams, manager of Grey Matter Books in Hadley, said. “Nobody cares about the small bookstore in Western Massachusetts.”

Generally in the area, small bookstores have been seeing an increase in purchases of challenged and banned books. Betsy Frederick, co-owner of Raven Used Books in Northampton, said that more people are looking for books on tyranny, revolution, radicalism and resistance. “We’re not afraid to have the books that people want.”

Adam Tobin, co-owner of Unnameable Books in Turners Falls, MA, has been in the business of small bookstores for 25 years, and over time, found censorship in America to be subtle at times. Though book bans are everywhere now, “big publishers, big business, big bookstores” were the ones to originally “make decisions about what is readily available to people.”

According to Tobin, while censorship is a factor, there’s a large issue of books and authors being ignored. “Smaller publishers get ignored by, not just the mainstream press, but the whole apparatus of publicity, algorithms and whatever it is that leads people to what they want to read.”

“If a book gets challenged at schools or libraries, bookshops become the place where folks can get access to these items, albeit for purchase as opposed to free circulation,” Shannon Ramsey, co-owner at Amherst Books, wrote in an email. “Generally speaking, challenged books are strong sellers. It’s basic psychology – once you tell someone they can’t have something, they want it all the more!”

Smaller bookstores place under the radar grants Tobin more freedom. Though he feels “pretty safe right here, right now in this current environment …the environment is changing.” But to an extent, Tobin still feels “kind of invisible to people who would otherwise try to censor what I’m doing.”

Though there have been no outright disagreements or actions taken against small bookstores, tensions are still high. At Broadside Bookshop, Palestine and LGBTQIA+ related content “get turned around,” Bill said. “[Some] people don’t want them out so [they’ve] moved them to different sections [and covered] them up.”

While there may be minor issues within bookstores, an increase in struggles within the publishing and translating communities in literature is expected. Graduate and international students are a major part of the literary world, according to Tobin, and due to recent visa revocations, there is uncertainty within the literary communities.

Despite controversies, there is confidence within the small businesses. “We think of ourselves as staunch defenders of free speech,” Bill said. “It’s more important now than it ever has been …especially to make sure people feel safe and want to be able to buy these books.”

Adams encourages readers to support public libraries and to buy a copy of a book they love for their own shelf “because you may not be able to in the future.”

“Read everything,” Adams said. “Browse the shelves and go into bookstores and …libraries just to see what’s there.”

Across the Hampshire County area, bookstores including the Montague Bookmill in Montague, Booklink Booksellers and Splendor Solis in Northhampton, Odyssey Bookshop in South Hadley, Heritage Books in Southampton, Book Moon Books in Easthampton and Bookends in Florence sell used, donated and new books.

“We’ll always carry the [challenged books],” Frederick said. “We will not submit.”

Kalina Kornacki can be reached at [email protected].