Publisher donates free copies of banned book in Randolph County

If they didn't want to read Ralph Ellison's classic novel, "Invisible Man" before last week, Randolph County high schools students may now be intrigued, following

the Randolph County school board's decision last week to ban the book from school libraries. The board voted after receiving a complaint from a parent objecting to language and sexual content.

On Wednesday, Sept. 25, students will get a chance to own the book, thanks to a former Randolph County resident who arranged to have Vintage Books donate free copies, according to Asheboro's Courier-Tribune.

The books will be distributed free to high school students, as long as they last, at Books a Million in Randolph Mall. Former Randolph resident Evan Smith Rakoff, an editor at Poets & Writers magazine, had the idea for the giveaway.

"Banning any book, but especially a great American novel like 'Invisible Man,' just doesn’t fit the values of the Randolph County I know,"  he told the Courier-Tribune.

A Vintage spokesman said the publisher was happy to help and hoped the attention would bring more readers to the wonderful novel. It will, of course, because it always does when something banned. Book banners never seem to figure that out.