Publishing CEO Donates $500,000 to Fight Book Bans

Markus Dohle, CEO of Penguin Random House, will personally donate at least $500,000 to the free speech organization PEN America. Book ban in the United StatesPEN announced on Wednesday.

Dohle said in an interview that he hopes others will do the same by donating to the newly created Dohle Book Defense Fund, which will provide support to communities struggling with books.

In recent months, there has been a surge among parents, activists and lawmakers across the country demanding the removal of certain books from schools, and challenges traditionally limited to school board meetings have spilled over into the political realm. Laws were written to restrict books on topics such as sexual orientation or gender identity, and the governors of Texas and South Carolina have instructed state education officials to root out what they call pornographic material in school libraries.

There has been an effort for living what can be taught with prohibitions in classrooms that target critical race theory, which examines the role of laws and other institutions in racial inequality.

Those trying to remove books from schools say that some of the texts contain materials that are not suitable for children. But opponents say removing books from schools violates the rights of parents and students who want to access them. They say exposure to a variety of books is important so that children can learn about themselves and the world around them.

For Dohle, the issue of the book ban is a professional and personal one. Raised in Germany after WWII, she said she grew up aware of “the country’s dark times and dark history.”

During his career at Bertelsmann, the German media conglomerate that owns Penguin Random House, he has worked in a number of restrictive environments, including Poland in the 1990s, Russia in the early 2000s, and China today.

About the prohibitions and restrictions he saw on books in America, he said, “This is dangerous. This is unimaginable. And it is very urgent and linked to the future of our democracy.”

Suzanne Nossel, CEO of PEN America, described the increase in book bans as “unprecedented” and said the organization needed to hire more workers and consultants to address this issue.

“In earlier times, we used to deal with a few of these situations once a year. “We are now dealing with new challenges and bans every week and on a much larger scale.” “It’s not just parents who appeal to principals and librarians, but laws are being introduced that impose sweeping bans on what types of books are available to students in state homes. And it has fallen into a much larger political battle over the narratives accessible in this country, where communities want to amplify and suppress narratives.”

He said the new funding will be used to help cover costs associated with PEN’s efforts to tackle these challenges, including consultants, attorneys, and costs associated with public campaigns and media events. Dohle, who is vice chairman of the board of PEN America, has pledged to donate at least $100,000 to the organization each year for five years.

“What I find so striking about her is that she is an enthusiastic, larger-than-life personality and very optimistic and kind of a cheerleader for the publishing industry,” Nossel said. “But it’s also deeply connected to the dark sides that lurk in a society and how things can quickly turn around.”