Attaining the greatest positive response of any of his works up to that time, Steinbeck's novella was chosen as a Book of the Month Club selection before it was published. Praise for the work came from many notable critics, including Maxine Garrard (Enquirer-Sun),[17] Christopher Morley, and Harry Thornton Moore (New Republic).[18] New York Times critic Ralph Thompson described the novella as a "grand little book, for all its ultimate melodrama."[19][20] In the UK, it was listed at number 52 of the "nation's best loved novels" on the BBC's 2003 survey The Big Read.[21]
The novella has been banned from various US public and school libraries or curricula for allegedly "promoting euthanasia", "condoning racial slurs", being "anti-business", containing profanity, and generally containing "vulgar," "offensive language," and containing racial stereotypes, as well as the negative impact of these stereotypes on students.[22][23] Many of the bans and restrictions have been lifted and it remains required reading in many other American, Australian, Irish, British, New Zealand and Canadian high schools.
As a result of being a frequent target of censors, Of Mice and Men appears on the American Library Association's list of the Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000–2009 (number five)[24] and Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2010–2019 (number 28).[25] Of Mice and Men has been proposed for censorship 54 times since it was published in 1936.[26] However, scholars including Thomas Scarseth have fought to protect the book by arguing its literary value. According to Scarseth "in true great literature the pain of Life is transmuted into the beauty of Art."[27]
