Writer, professor, activist Claudia Johnson is sure that reading Lysistrata and The Miller's Tale when she was a student changed her life; these two classic works made her think and made her laugh—two things she's been doing ever since.

Her book, Stifled Laughter, tells the sometimes frightening story of her battle to save these very works from being banned from Lake City, Florida’s public high school. When some local parents demanded the works be banned because they were “pornographic”, “blasphemous”, and “promoted women's lib”, Johnson was so concerned she stuck her neck out to challenge the banning, first in the community and then in a long, expensive and grueling journey through the courts.

Johnson was attacked in the newspaper, at public meetings and in threatening phone calls. She kept to the high ground, explaining the principles of separation of church and state and freedom of expression, talking about students’ right to read and learn from the classics so that they understood cultural history and could analyze challenging ideas.The uproar was agonizing for Johnson and her family. While the case was in the federal courts, they moved to Live Oak, Florida. But instead of finding respite there, Johnson was appalled to find parents trying to ban Of Mice and Men from their high school. She and her husband also found their almost-finished house burned to ashes in a suspicious fire.