Zoia!: Memoirs of Zoia Horn, Battler for People's Right to Know

by Zoia Horn

On March 3, 1972, Zoia Horn, formerly a librarian at Bucknell University, was called as a government witness in the trial of the "Harrisburg Seven." She refused to testify, instead reading a statement to the court that said in part: "Your honor, it is because I respect the function of this court to protect the rights of the individual, that I must refuse to testify." The judge ordered Ms. Horn jailed for contempt. The American Library Associations Executive Board refused publicly to support Horns stand against the governments attempts to intimidate and silence Vietnam War protesters. Only after subjecting her to hours of grueling questioning months later did the Board reverse the decision, officially commending her "commitment...in defense of intellectual freedom."

334 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1995

About the author

A lifelong opponent of censorship and government surveillance, Zoia Horn was the first librarian to be jailed for refusing to diclose information to the government as a matter of conscience.

Reviews

[Moonlight.aileen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book took me forever to finish. I started it 9/15, and didn't finish it until today (10/7). Part of this, was because it was densely written and had a lot more information than I was expecting (I checked it out because I had heard of Zoia Horn being jailed for refusing to testify in court. This was but a small chapter in the book). The other part is because I kept getting distracted by other books and genres.

I would recommend this to librarians who are interested in snippets of history of the ALA, but honestly it probably wouldn't interest many other people.