The decades-old graphic novel about the effects of the Holocaust on a family became a top seller on Amazon in recent days as a result of a backlash to news that it was banned by a Tennessee school board.
The McMinn County school board took that step. The board found the book upsetting, including depictions of violence and suicide, and decided to remove it.
The book was part of a curriculum that focused on the Holocaust, which both of his parents lived through.
The Complete Maus held the top spot in the comics and graphic novels category on Friday.
The books that are combined in The Complete Maus have shot up to the top of Amazon's bestseller lists.
Other people made the book more accessible to readers after the McMinn board banned it.
One of them, Professor Scott Denham at Davidson College in North Carolina, is offering McMinn County students in the eighth grade and high school an online class.
He says on his website that he has taught the books many times.
The owner of a bookstore in Tennessee is giving away loans to students.
Davis' store is located within 15 miles of McMinn County and he has set up a campaign to buy moreMaus copies to be given to students. By Friday afternoon, the effort had reached its original target.
Davis said that they were getting requests from parents all over the country.
He believes that the strong response reflects the view that we don't ban books in America.
He said that it triggered a very American response.
Banned books are among the most important, and especially right now, it is very important.
Cartoonist Art Spiegelman attends the French Institute Alliance Francaise's "After Charlie: What's Next for Art, Satire and Censorship at Florence Gould Hall on February 19, 2015 in New York City.The author of the book told CNBC in an email that he was heartened by reader responses.
The schoolboard could have checked with Russia President Vladimir Putin, who banned the Russian edition of the book.
He referred to the phenomenon as the Streisand effect, named after Barbra Streisand, of an effort to ban something that would cause increased public awareness.
The lecture agent is trying to coordinate a public/Zoom event for the McMinn area where I will talk and take questions from local citizens in the next couple weeks.
The president of the school board didn't respond to a request for comment on the book's increased sales or the comments of the author.
The McMinn ban was not widely known until Wednesday, when a local online news outlet publicized it.
The book tells the story of the time in Nazi death camps, the mass murder of other Jews, and the suicide of his mother.
Groups of people are drawn as different types of animals: Jews are mice, Poles are pigs, and Nazi Germans are cats.
According to the minutes of the McMinn school board meeting, some parents were against teaching about the Holocaust because of profanity in the book. An image showing a nude woman who is Spiegelman's mother caused an issue with them.
According to minutes of the meeting, board member Mike Cochran said that they could teach them history and graphic history.
The U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. challenged that idea after news broke about the ban, saying thatMaus has played a vital role in educating about the Holocaust.
The author of the book about the Holocaust told CNBC that he has met many young people who have learned from his book.
The owner of a comic book store agreed.
Davis said in an interview Friday thatMaus changed his life and how he sees the world.
The book rises above its original medium according to him. It is more than a comic book, it is an important historical document that provides perspective about one of the most horrible events in history.
The fact thatMaus is a graphic novel makes it the most effective book to teach the Holocaust to children, according to Davis.
He said that teenagers are used to reading comic books.
He said that it should be in every school curriculum.
The end result of the ban reflects negatively on Tennessee because it perpetuates the idea that people in the south are backward.
He said that we live in an era where one complaint can lead to a book being banned.
He said that the McMinn parents and the school board were well-intentioned and thought they were protecting their children.
I think that the parents' good intentions resulted in very negative results. I think they are harming their children by trying to keep them away from books.
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