On banning of books

When I read about the Conway School Board’s decision to remove two books dealing with transgender issues from school libraries, I remembered a wonderful letter the late Pat Conroy sent to the Charleston, W.Va., school board that had banned the teaching of two of his novels, “The Prince of Tides” and “Beach Music.”

One snippet of Conroy’s letter bears repeating: “You’ve now entered the ranks of censors, book-banners, and teacher-haters, and the word will spread. Good teachers will avoid you as though you had cholera. But here is my favorite thing: Because you banned my books, every kid in that county will read them, every single one of them. Because book-banners are invariably idiots, they don’t know how the world works—but writers and English teachers do.”

Conway residents should take note.

DAVID JOLLIFFE Fayetteville