"The directors of the Concord Public Library have joined in the general scheme to advertise MARK TWAIN'S new book, 'Huckleberry Finn.' They have placed it on the Index Expurgatorius, and this will compel every citizen of Concord to read the book in order to see why the guardians of his morals prohibited it." So reported the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on 17 March 1885 in one of the earliest newspaper accounts of the first time Huck Finn was banned.

The fullest account that I know of appeared the next day, in the New York Herald. The tone seems to support the decision of the Library directors.

On 23 March 1885 the Boston Daily Advertiser reported that "in papers from one end of the country to the other the statement is published and commented upon that the public library committee of Concord has marked 'Huckleberry Finn' as unworthy of a place on its shelves." Many papers supported the Library's decision, but it was disapproved and even ridiculed in others, including the San Francisco Chronicle, which on 29 March 1885 printed a strong defense of the novel.

From the beginning of the controversy the Hartford Courant had loyally defended the book. On 4 April 1885 it summed up the affair in an article that included the response MT himself made for the public record, where he too treats the event as a form of advertising.