Editing Go Ask Alice

{{Short description|1971 novel by Beatrice Sparks}}
{{About|the book|the song by [[Jefferson Airplane]]|White Rabbit (song)}}
{{use mdy dates|date=August 2023}}
{{Infobox book
| name              = Go Ask Alice
| author            = [[Beatrice Sparks]]
| language          = English
| country           = 
| genre             = [[Young adult fiction]]
| published         = 1971
| publisher         = {{Plain list|
* [[Prentice Hall]] (1st edition)
* [[Simon & Schuster]] (later editions)
}}
| isbn              = 0-671-66458-1
| image             = Go_Ask_Alice,_first_edition_cover,_Prentice_Hall_1971.jpg
| image_size        = 
| caption           = Dust jacket of Prentice Hall first edition, 1971
| illustator        = 
| cover_artist      = 
| series            = 
| media_type        = Print (hardcover and paperback), ebook
| pages             = 
| congress          = PZ7 .G534
| oclc              = 164716
| preceded_by       = 
| followed_by       = 
}}

'''''Go Ask Alice''''' is a 1971 book about a teenage girl who develops a [[substance dependence|drug addiction]] at age 15 and runs away from home on a journey of self-destructive escapism. Attributed to "Anonymous", the book is in [[epistolary novel|diary form]], and was originally presented as being the edited actual diary of the unnamed teenage protagonist.<ref name="oppenheimer">{{cite news |last=Oppenheimer |first=Mark |date=1998-11-15 |title=Just Say 'Uh-Oh': Two New Drug Novels, and the Book That Established the Genre |url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/11/15/reviews/981115.15oppenht.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times Book Review]] |page=36 |access-date=2016-12-21 |via=Proquest |url-access=subscription  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160430154232/http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/11/15/reviews/981115.15oppenht.html |archive-date=2016-04-30 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=nilsenreminiscing>{{cite journal |last=Nilsen |first=Alleen Pace |date=Summer 2013 |title=Reminiscing: One Perspective on ALAN's Beginnings |url=https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/ALAN/v40n3/nilsen.html |url-status=live |journal=The ALAN Review |volume=40 |issue=3 |doi=10.21061/alan.v40i3.a.1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160720010747/https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/ALAN/v40n3/nilsen.html |archive-date=2016-07-20 |access-date=2016-12-22 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> Questions about the book's authenticity and true authorship began to arise in the late 1970s, and [[Beatrice Sparks]] is now generally viewed as the author of the [[found manuscript]]–styled fictional document.<ref name="Esq">{{cite news |last1=Clark |first1=Jonathan Russell Clark |title=Go Ask Alice Is a Lie. But Bookstores Won't Stop Selling It. |url=https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/a40204753/go-ask-alice-book-is-a-lie/ |access-date=6 July 2022 |publisher=Esquire |date=5 July 2022}}</ref>  Sparks went on to write numerous other books purporting to be real diaries of troubled teenagers.<ref name=nilsenreminiscing /><ref name=yagoda /><ref name=mikkelson>{{cite web|url=http://www.snopes.com/language/literary/askalice.asp |title=Go Ask Alice: Was Go Ask Alice the Real-Life Diary of a Teenage Girl? |last=Mikkelson |first=Barbara |date=2008-01-04 |website=snopes.com |publisher=[[Urban Legends Reference Pages]] |access-date=2016-12-22 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120915093751/http://www.snopes.com/language/literary/askalice.asp |archive-date=2012-09-15 }}</ref><ref name=white>{{cite magazine|last=White |first=Caitlin |date=2014-07-03 |title='Go Ask Alice' Is Still Awash in Controversy, 43 Years After Publication |url=https://www.bustle.com/articles/29829-go-ask-alice-is-still-awash-in-controversy-43-years-after-publication |magazine=[[Bustle (magazine)|Bustle]] |location=New York City |publisher=Bustle.com |access-date=2016-12-29 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20161229191114/https://www.bustle.com/articles/29829-go-ask-alice-is-still-awash-in-controversy-43-years-after-publication |archive-date=2016-12-29 }}</ref><ref name=hendley>{{cite book |last=Hendley |first=Nate |date=2016 |title=The Big Con: Great Hoaxes, Frauds, Grifts, and Swindles in American History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8K_gDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA161 |location=Santa Barbara, California |publisher=ABC-CLIO |pages=161–163 |isbn=9781610695862 }}</ref> Some sources have also named Linda Glovach as a co-author of the book.<ref name=oppenheimer /><ref name=pw /> Nevertheless, its popularity has endured, and, as of 2014, it had remained continuously in print since its publication over four decades earlier.<ref name="white" />

Intended for a [[young adult fiction|young adult]] audience, ''Go Ask Alice'' became a widely popular bestseller.<ref name=nilsenreminiscing /><ref name=yagoda /><ref name="Esq"/> It is praised for conveying a powerful message about the dangers of drug abuse.<ref name=chapman>{{cite news |last=Chapman |first=Geoffrey |date=1974-04-10 |title='Go Ask Alice' Contains a Contemporary Message |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/63016801/ |newspaper=[[Bennington Banner]] |location=[[Bennington, Vermont]] |page=16 |access-date=2016-12-23 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription }}</ref> ''Go Ask Alice'' has also ranked among the most frequently [[challenge (literature)|challenged]] books for several decades due to its use of profanity and explicit references to sex and rape, as well as drugs.<ref name=businessclarksville>{{cite news|author=News Staff |date=2010-09-07 |title=Banned Books: Go Ask Alice |url=http://businessclarksville.com/arts/banned-books-go-ask-alice/2010/09/07/14506 |url-status=live |newspaper=Business & Heritage Clarksville |location=[[Clarksville, Tennessee]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161218134215/http://businessclarksville.com/arts/banned-books-go-ask-alice/2010/09/07/14506 |archive-date=2016-12-18 |access-date=2016-12-18 }}</ref> The book was adapted into the 1973 [[television film]] ''Go Ask Alice'', starring Jamie Smith-Jackson and [[William Shatner]].<ref name=foster /> In 1976, a [[stage play]] of the same name, written by Frank Shiras and based on the book, was also published.<ref name=shiras>{{cite book |last=Shiras |first=Frank |date=1976 |title=Go Ask Alice: A Full Length Play |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IlTNrDjPJ1sC&pg=PA1 |location=[[Woodstock, Illinois]] |publisher=The Dramatic Publishing Company |pages=1–3 |isbn=0871294907 }}</ref>

==Title==
The title was taken from a line in the 1967 [[Grace Slick]]-penned [[Jefferson Airplane]] song "[[White Rabbit (song)|White Rabbit]]"<ref name=hendley /><ref name=loebker>{{cite news |last=Loebker |first=Terri |date=1971-10-16 |title=Books In Review: Diary of a Young Drug Addict |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/101240321/ |newspaper=The Cincinnati Enquirer |page=Teen-Ager–p. 3 |access-date=2016-12-21 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription  |quote="Go Ask Alice", (title adapted from Grace Slick's song, "White Rabbit",) is the anonymous diary of a 15-year-old drug user.}}</ref> ("go ask Alice/ when she's ten feet tall"); the lyrics in turn reference scenes in [[Lewis Carroll]]'s 1865 novel [[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland|''Alice's Adventures In Wonderland'']], in which the title character [[Alice (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)|Alice]] eats and drinks various substances, including a mushroom, that make her grow larger or smaller. Slick's song is understood as using Carroll's story as a [[metaphor]] for a drug experience.<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Rock Hits Often Push Drug Messages |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/8870876 |newspaper=The Arizona Republic |location=Phoenix, Arizona |date=1970-02-18 |page=14–A |access-date=2016-12-21 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription  }}</ref><ref>{{cite news <!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=2012-08-20 |title=Magazine: Is Alice In Wonderland Really About Drugs? |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-19254839 |work=BBC News |access-date=2016-12-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160908220629/http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-19254839 |archive-date=2016-09-08 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The title ''Go Ask Alice'' was actually thought up by Kathy Fitzgerald, Sparks' editor at Prentice-Hall.  Sparks' title was "Buried Alive", which Fitzgerald greatly disliked.  Fitzgerald lit on the new title after overhearing a co-worker singing "White Rabbit" in an office hallway.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Unmask Alice by Rick Emerson: 9781637740422 {{!}} PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books |url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/691586/unmask-alice-by-rick-emerson/ |access-date=2023-02-28 |website=PenguinRandomhouse.com |language=en-US}}</ref>

==Plot summary==
In 1968, a 15-year-old girl begins keeping a diary, in which she records her thoughts and concerns about issues such as crushes, weight loss, sexuality, social acceptance, and relating to her parents. The dates and locations mentioned in the book place its events as occurring between 1968 and 1970 in [[California]], [[Colorado]], [[Oregon]], and [[New York City]]. The two towns in which the diarist's family reside during the story are unidentified, the only indications being that universities are situated in both.

The diarist's father, a college professor, accepts a [[dean (education)|dean]] position at a new college, requiring the family to relocate. The diarist has difficulty adjusting to her new school, but soon becomes best friends with a girl named Beth. When Beth leaves for summer camp, the diarist returns to her hometown, where she meets an old school acquaintance, who invites her to a party where glasses of cola—some of which are laced with [[LSD]]—are served. The diarist unwittingly ingests LSD and has an intense and pleasurable [[drug trip|trip]]. Over the following days the diarist socializes with the other teens from the party, willingly uses more drugs, and loses her virginity while on acid.<ref name="Esq"/> She worries that she may be pregnant, and her grandfather has a minor [[myocardial infarction|heart attack]]. Overwhelmed by her worries, the diarist begins to take sleeping pills, first stolen from her grandparents, then later prescribed. Her friendship with Beth ends, as both girls have moved in new directions.

The diarist befriends a [[hip (slang)|hip]] girl, Chris, with whom she continues to use drugs. They date college students Richie and Ted, who deal drugs and persuade the two girls to help them by selling drugs at schools. When the girls walk in on Richie and Ted stoned and having sex with each other, they realize that their "boyfriends" were just using them to make money. The girls report Richie and Ted to the police and flee to [[San Francisco]], Chris gets a job in a boutique with a glamorous older woman, Shelia, who invites both girls to lavish parties, where they resume taking drugs. One night Shelia and her new boyfriend introduce the girls to [[heroin]] and brutally rape them while they are under the influence of the drug. Traumatized, the diarist and Chris move to [[Berkeley, California|Berkeley]] where they open a jewelry shop. Although the shop is a success, they quickly grow tired of it and miss their families; they return home for a happy Christmas.

Back at home, the diarist encounters social pressure from her drug scene friends, and has problems getting along with her parents. Chris and the diarist try to stay away from drugs, but their resolve lapses and they end up on probation after being caught in a police raid. The diarist gets high one night and runs away. She travels to several cities, hitchhiking part way with a girl named Doris, who is a victim of child sexual abuse. The diarist continues to use drugs, running out of money. She thinks she has hit the jackpot when she goes to a hippie festival where "drugs are as free as the air", only to catch the eye of the event's drug kingpin, who demands the diarist fellate him or else her supply will be cut off. The diarist hits rock bottom when she experiences homelessness. In desperation, she seeks out a Catholic priest, who helps her and contacts her parents. The diarist runs out of space in her diary and says that the decision to buy a fresh one is synonymous with turning over a new leaf.

Now determined to avoid drugs, she faces hostility from her former friends. When one girl shows up high for a babysitting job, the diarist informs the girl's parents who beg her not to tell their daughter's [[parole officer]]. The diarist's former friends harass her at school and threaten her and her family. They eventually drug her against her will; she has a [[bad trip]] resulting in physical and mental damage, and is sent to a [[psychiatric hospital]]. The diary goes through passages of nonsense until the diarist can write clearly again, believing her body is being eaten by worms, which she eventually stops imagining. There she bonds with a younger girl named Babbie, who has also been a drug addict and [[child prostitution|child prostitute]].

Released from the hospital, the diarist returns home, finally free of drugs. She now gets along better with her family, makes new friends, and is romantically involved with Joel, a man attending her father's college on the [[GI Bill]]. She is worried about starting school again, but feels stronger with the support of her new friends and Joel. In an optimistic mood, the diarist decides to stop keeping a diary and instead discuss her problems and thoughts with other people.

The epilogue states that the subject of the book died three weeks after the diarist's decision not to keep a third diary. The diarist was found dead in her home by her parents when they returned from a movie. She died from a drug overdose, either premeditated or accidental. The epilogue says that while the precise cause of death was never determined, it is but one of thousands of drug overdoses every year.

==Diarist's name==

The anonymous diarist's name is never revealed in the book.<ref name=logan>{{cite news |last=Logan |first=Patty |date=1974-01-12 |title=Diary of a 15-Year-Old Recommended by Reviewer |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/101057987/ |newspaper=The Cincinnati Enquirer |location=Cincinnati, Ohio |page=13 |access-date=2016-12-27 |quote=The book's subject (we are never given her name, but assume she is Alice) comes from a normal, middle-class family... |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription }}</ref> In an episode where the diarist describes having sex with a drug dealer, she quotes an onlooker's remark indicating that her name may be Carla.<ref>{{cite book |author=Anonymous |date=1971 |title=Go Ask Alice |location=New York City |publisher=Prentice-Hall |edition=Avon Books paperback |publication-date=1972 |pages=102–103 |isbn=0380005239 |quote=If I don't give Big Ass a blow he'll cut off my supply...Big Ass makes me do it before he gives me the load. Everybody is just lying around here like they're dead and Little Jacon is yelling, 'Mama, Daddy can't come now. He's humping Carla.'}}</ref><ref name=turner>{{cite web |url=http://alittleshelfofheaven.blogspot.com/2013/04/guest-review-go-ask-alice-by-anonymous.html |title=Guest Review: Go Ask Alice by Anonymous |author=Turner |date=2013-04-25 |website=alittleshelfofheaven.blogspot.com |publisher=Kristy |access-date=2017-03-24 |quote=Despite the book being titled ''Go Ask Alice'', the “Alice” character is only mentioned briefly, after the narrator just picks up her bags and leaves home, and ends up in Coos Bay, Oregon. One sentence in the diary may, or may not, state the diarist’s name; “Daddy can’t come, he’s humping Carla”....All I can say is this encounter did not end well for “Carla” (I use the quotations because her name has never been confirmed). |url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170324143804/http://alittleshelfofheaven.blogspot.com/2013/04/guest-review-go-ask-alice-by-anonymous.html |archive-date=2017-03-24}}</ref><ref name=girldetective>{{cite web |url=http://www.girldetective.net/?p=4607 |title="Go Ask Alice" by Beatrice Sparks et al. |author=Girl Detective |date=2012-07-11 |website=girldetective.net |publisher=Girl Detective (blog) |access-date=2017-03-24 |quote=The Alice of the title refers to the woman on drugs in the Jefferson Airplane song, as well as a girl the “narrator” meetings [sic] in the novel. It’s theorized that the author is “Carla” as from p. 113: "Big Ass makes me do it before he gives me the load. Little Jacon is yelling, “Mama, Daddy can’t come now. He’s humping Carla.” |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170324144721/http://www.girldetective.net/?p=4607 |archive-date=2017-03-24}}</ref> Although a girl named Alice appears very briefly in the book, she is not the diarist, but a fellow runaway whom the diarist meets on the street in [[Coos Bay, Oregon]].<ref name=turner /><ref name=girldetective /><ref>{{cite book |author=Anonymous |date=1971 |title=Go Ask Alice |location=New York City |publisher=Prentice-Hall |edition=Avon Books paperback |publication-date=1972 |page=107 |isbn=0380005239 |quote=Then I talked to Alice, who I met just sitting stoned on the curb. She didn't know whether she was running away from something or running to something, but she admitted that deep in her heart she wanted to go home.}}</ref>

Despite the lack of any evidence in the book that the diarist's name is Alice, the covers of various editions have suggested that her name is Alice by including [[blurb]] text such as "This is Alice's true story"<ref name=alicearrow>{{cite book |author=Anonymous |date=1971 |publication-date=2011 |title=Go Ask Alice |location=London |publisher=[[Random House|Arrow Books]] |page=Front cover |no-pp=yes|isbn=9780099557494 |edition=Mandarin Paperbacks 1991 }}</ref> and "You can't ask Alice anything anymore. But you can do something—read her diary."<ref>{{cite book |author=Anonymous |date=1971 |publication-date=1972 |title=Go Ask Alice |location=New York City |publisher=[[Avon (publisher)|Avon Books]] |page=Back cover |no-pp=yes|lccn=74-159446 |edition=First paperback |id=Avon Catalog N431}}</ref> Reviewers and commentators have also frequently referred to the anonymous diarist as "Alice",<ref name=oppenheimer /><ref name=chapman /><ref name=businessclarksville /><ref name=loebker /><ref name=logan /><ref name=durchschlag /><ref name=janke /> sometimes for convenience.<ref name="katsoulis">{{cite book|last=Katsoulis|first=Melissa|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IKjABAAAQBAJ&pg=PT75|title=Telling Tales: A History of Literary Hoaxes|date=2009|publisher=Constable & Robinson Ltd|isbn=9781472107831|location=London|page=PT75-76}}</ref><ref name=goldberg>{{cite web |url=http://www.linagoldberg.com/goaskalice.html  |title="Curiouser and Curiouser": Fact, Fiction, and the Anonymous Author of Go Ask Alice |last=Goldberg |first=Lina |date=2009-10-02 |website=linagoldberg.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100325212945/http://www.linagoldberg.com/goaskalice.html |archive-date=2010-03-25 |access-date=2016-12-22}}</ref>

In the 1973 television film based on the book, the protagonist played by Jamie Smith-Jackson is named "Alice".<ref name=oconnor /> The protagonist is also named "Alice Aberdeen" in the 1976 stage play adaptation.<ref name=shiras />

==Production==
The manuscript that later became ''Go Ask Alice'' was initially prepared for publication by [[Beatrice Sparks]], a [[Mormons|Mormon]] youth counselor then in her early 50s, who had previously done various forms of writing. Sparks had reportedly noted that the general public at that time lacked knowledge about youth drug abuse, and she likely had both educational and moral motives for publishing the book.<ref name=katsoulis /><ref name=goldberg/><ref name=nilsenhouse>{{cite journal |last=Nilsen |first=Alleen Pace |date=October 1979 |title=The House That Alice Built |url=https://www.scribd.com/document/29873595/Go-Ask-Alice-Lit-Crit-The-House-That-Alice-Built |journal=School Library Journal |volume=26 |issue=2 |pages=109–112 |access-date=2016-12-26 |via=Scribd.com }}</ref> Sparks later claimed that the book was based on a real diary she received from a real teenage girl,<ref name=nilsenhouse /> although this claim was never substantiated<ref name=katsoulis /> and the girl has never been identified<ref name=mikkelson /><ref name="Esq"/> (see [[#Authorship|Authorship and veracity controversies]]). In the 1982 Avon paperback version of ''Go Ask Alice'' the Library of Congress lists the book as "fiction."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Unmask Alice by Rick Emerson: 9781637740422 {{!}} PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books |url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/691586/unmask-alice-by-rick-emerson/ |access-date=2023-02-28 |website=PenguinRandomhouse.com |language=en-US}}</ref>

With the help of [[Art Linkletter]], a popular [[talk show]] host for whom Sparks had worked as a [[ghostwriter]], the manuscript was passed on to Linkletter's literary agent, who sold it to Prentice Hall.<ref name=nilsenhouse /><ref name="Esq"/> Linkletter, who had become a prominent anti-drug crusader after the 1969 suicide of his daughter [[Diane Linkletter|Diane]],<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Johnson |first=Ted |date=2010-05-27 |title=Art Linkletter's War on Drugs |url=https://variety.com/2010/biz/opinion/art-linkletters-war-on-drugs-39200/ |url-status=live |magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |location=New York City |publisher=Variety.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170107142420/http://variety.com/2010/biz/opinion/art-linkletters-war-on-drugs-39200/ |archive-date=2017-01-07 |access-date=2017-01-07 }}</ref> also helped publicize the book.<ref name=pwadvances>{{cite magazine |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Prentice-Hall has built up large advances... |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Yr9EAQAAIAAJ&q=art+linkletter+go+ask+alice |magazine=Publishers Weekly |edition=bound volume |location=New York City |publisher=R.R. Bowker |date=1971 |access-date=2017-01-07 |volume=200, part 1 |page=34  }}</ref><ref name=boettner>{{cite news |last=Boettner |first=Jack |date=1975-05-15 |title='Alice' Called Obscene: Mother Fights for School Ban on Book |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/164466097/ |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |page=R Part II – 3 |access-date=2016-12-26 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription  }}</ref><ref name=clarke>{{cite news |last=Clarke |first=John |date=1978-02-18 |title=The Alice Affair |newspaper=[[The Globe and Mail]]| location=[[Toronto]] |page=8 |via=Proquest  }}</ref> Even before its publication, ''Go Ask Alice'' had racked up large advance orders of 18,000 copies.<ref name=pwadvances />

==Reception==

===Public reception===
Upon its 1971 publication, ''Go Ask Alice'' quickly became a publishing sensation<ref name=stegall>{{cite news|last=Stegall |first=Tim |date=2015-01-02 |title=Book Review: Review: Dear Nobody: The True Diary of Mary Rose |url=http://www.austinchronicle.com/arts/2015-01-02/dear-nobody-the-true-diary-of-mary-rose/ |newspaper=[[The Austin Chronicle]] |location=[[Austin, Texas]] |access-date=2016-12-26 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160404202739/http://www.austinchronicle.com/arts/2015-01-02/dear-nobody-the-true-diary-of-mary-rose/ |archive-date=2016-04-04 }}</ref> and an international bestseller, being translated into 16 languages.<ref name=nilsenreminiscing /> Its success has been attributed to the timing of its publication at the height of the [[psychedelic era]], when the negative effects of drug use were becoming a public concern.<ref name=adams>{{cite magazine |last=Adams |first=Lauren |date=September 1998 |title=A Second Look: Go Ask Alice |magazine=[[The Horn Book Magazine]] |pages=587–592|location=Boston |publisher=The Horn Book Inc. |via=ProQuest  }}</ref> Alleen Pace Nilsen has called it "the book that came closest to being a [[young adult fiction|YA]] phenomenon" of its time, although saying it was "never as famous as [the later] ''[[Harry Potter]]'', ''[[Twilight (novel series)|Twilight]]'', and ''[[The Hunger Games|Hunger Games]]'' series".<ref name=nilsenreminiscing /> In addition to being very popular with its intended [[young adult fiction|young adult]] audience, ''Go Ask Alice'' also attracted a significant number of adult readers.<ref name=stegall /><ref name="Esq"/>

Libraries had difficulty obtaining and keeping enough copies of the book on the shelves to meet demand.<ref name=whatreviewerswrote>{{cite news |date=1978-01-22 |title=What Reviewers Wrote |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/01/22/archives/long-island-weekly-what-reviewers-wrote.html |newspaper=The New York Times — Long Island Weekly |page=6 L.I |access-date=2016-12-26 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240528005218/https://www.webcitation.org/6n2zlexg4?url=http://www.nytimes.com/1978/01/22/archives/long-island-weekly-what-reviewers-wrote.html%3F_r=0 |archive-date=2024-05-28 |url-status=live |via=Proquest |url-access=subscription  }}</ref><ref name=meyers>{{cite news |last=Meyers |first=Christene C. |date=1974-05-05 |title=Controversial Book Popular in Billings |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/60480052/ |newspaper=[[Billings Gazette]] |location=[[Billings, Montana]] |page=18 |access-date=2016-12-27 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription  }}</ref> The 1973 television film based on the book heightened reader interest,<ref name=meyers /> and librarians reported having to order additional copies of the book each time the film was broadcast.

By 1975, more than three million copies of the book had reportedly been sold,<ref name=boettner /> and by 1979 the paperback edition had been reprinted 43 times. The book remained continuously in print over the ensuing decades, with reported sales of over four million copies by 1998,<ref name=oppenheimer /> and over five million copies by 2009.<ref name=yagoda /> The actual number of readers probably surpassed the sales figures, as library copies and even personal copies were likely circulated to more than one reader.<ref name=beidler>{{cite book |last=Beidler |first=Philip D. |date=1994 |title=Scriptures for a Generation: What We Were Reading in the '60s |url=https://archive.org/details/scripturesforgen00beid |url-access=registration |location=[[Athens, Georgia]] |publisher=The University of Georgia Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/scripturesforgen00beid/page/36 36]-38 |isbn=9780820317878 |author-link=Philip Beidler }}</ref> ''Go Ask Alice'' has been cited as establishing both the commercial potential of young adult fiction in general, and the genre of young adult anti-drug novels,<ref name=oppenheimer /> and has been called "one of the most famous anti-drug books ever published."<ref name=hendley />

===Critical response===
''Go Ask Alice'' received positive initial reviews, including praise from Webster Schott in ''[[The New York Times]]'', who called it an "extraordinary work", a "superior work" and a "document of horrifying reality [that] possesses literary quality".<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/05/07/archives/childrens-books-what-do-yas-read.html|title=Childrens Books|last=Schott|first=Webster|date=1972-05-07|work=The New York Times|access-date=2017-05-26|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> It was also recommended by ''[[Library Journal]]'', ''[[Publishers Weekly]]'', and ''[[The Christian Science Monitor]]'',<ref name=adams /> and ranked number 1 on the [[American Library Association]]'s 1971 list of Best Books for Young Adults.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Carr |first1=Mary |last2=Van Horn |first2=Carole |date=1972 |title=Books for Children and Young People: Critical Health Problems|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MvUaAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA316 |journal=Wisconsin Library Bulletin |volume=67-68   |issue=September–October 1972 |pages=316 |edition=Google Books |publication-date=2006-10-12 |publisher=Division of Library Services, Department of Public Instruction |access-date=2017-03-04  }}</ref> Some reviews focused on the realism of the book's material, without further addressing the literary merit of the book.<ref name=durchschlag /><ref name=janke /><ref name=adams /><ref>{{cite magazine|date=1971-09-14 |title=Go Ask Alice by Anonymous |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/anonymous-3/go-ask-alice/ |magazine=[[Kirkus Reviews]] |archive-url=https://archive.today/20170106211907/https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/anonymous-3/go-ask-alice/ |archive-date=2017-01-06 |url-status=live |access-date=2017-01-06 }}</ref> According to Nilsen and Lauren Adams, the book was not subjected to the regular forms of literary criticism because it was presumed to be the real diary of a dead teenager.<ref name=nilsenreminiscing /><ref name=adams /> Lina Goldberg has suggested that the publishers were motivated to list the author as "Anonymous" partly to avoid such criticism.<ref name=goldberg />

Years after its publication, ''Go Ask Alice'' continued to receive some good reviews, often in the context of defending the book against censors (see [[#Censorship|Censorship]]).<ref name=chapman /> In a 1995 ''[[Village Voice]]'' column for [[Banned Books Week]], [[Nat Hentoff]] described it as "an extraordinarily powerful account of what it's actually like to get hooked on drugs" that "doesn't preach".<ref>{{cite news |last=Hentoff |first=Nat |author-link=Nat Hentoff |date=1995-10-03 |title=Ralph Reed's Reading List |page=10 | work=The Village Voice |location=New York City |via=ProQuest  }}</ref>

However, starting in the 1990s, the book began to draw criticism for its heavy-handedness, melodramatic style and inauthenticity, in view of the growing evidence that it was fiction rather than a real teenager's diary (see [[#Authorship|Authorship and veracity controversies]]).<ref name=oppenheimer /><ref name=white /><ref name="jamison">{{cite news|last=Jamison|first=Leslie|date=2014-05-27|title=What's the Best 'Bad Book You've Ever Read?|newspaper=The New York Times Book Review|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/01/books/review/whats-the-best-bad-book-youve-ever-read.html|url-status=live|access-date=2017-01-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140601002410/http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/01/books/review/whats-the-best-bad-book-youve-ever-read.html|archive-date=2014-06-01}}</ref><ref name=adams /><ref name=valentine>{{cite news|author-last=Valentine |author-first=Jenny |author-link=Jenny Valentine |editor-last=Drabble |editor-first=Emily |date=2015-08-28 |title=Banned, Burned, or Simply Life Changing: What Are the Best Dangerous Books? |url=https://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2015/aug/28/banned-burned-or-simply-life-changing-what-are-the-best-dangerous-books |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London |access-date=2017-01-06 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151231175807/http://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2015/aug/28/banned-burned-or-simply-life-changing-what-are-the-best-dangerous-books |archive-date=2015-12-31 }}</ref> Reviewing the book again for ''The New York Times'' in 1998, Marc Oppenheimer called it "poorly written", "laughably written", and "incredible", although some other writers have pointed to the material as being plausible or even appealing to young readers.<ref name=adams /> The portrayal of the diarist's drug use, progressing from unwittingly ingesting LSD to injecting [[amphetamine|speed]] within a few days, and making a similar quick transition from her first use of [[marijuana]] to [[heroin]], has been deemed unrealistic.<ref name=white /><ref name=goldberg /><ref name=cuseo>{{cite book |last=Cuseo |first=Allan A. |date=1992 |title=Homosexual Characters in YA Novels: A Literary Analysis 1969–1982 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Extln1Ju_WAC&pg=PA62 |location=Lanham, Maryland |publisher=Scarecrow Press, Inc. |pages=62–64 | isbn=9780810825376 }}</ref> The book has been criticized for equating homosexuality with "degradation", illness, sin, and guilt.<ref name=cuseo /> More recent analyses have expressed ethical concerns with the book's presentation of fiction to young readers as a true story.<ref name=nilsenreminiscing /><ref name=goldberg /><ref name=valentine /> Despite all these criticisms, the book is frequently called a young adult classic.<ref name=white /><ref name=beidler /><ref>{{cite news|author-last=Everson |author-first=Katie |date=2015-09-08 |title=Why I've Written a Book for Teenagers About Taking Drugs |url=https://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2015/sep/08/teenage-drugs-books-katie-everson |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London |access-date=2017-01-07 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170102234506/https://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2015/sep/08/teenage-drugs-books-katie-everson |archive-date=2017-01-02 }}</ref>

===Educational use===
Although school boards and committees reached varying conclusions about whether ''Go Ask Alice'' had literary value,<ref name=boettner /><ref name=clarke /> educators generally viewed it as a strong cautionary warning against drug use.<ref name=clarke /> It was recommended to parents and assigned or distributed in some schools as an anti-drug teaching tool. However, some adults who read the book as teens or [[preadolescence|pre-teens]] have written that they paid little attention to the anti-drug message and instead related to the diarist's thoughts and emotions,<ref name=jamison /><ref>{{cite magazine|last=Moss |first=Gabrielle |date=May 2006 |title=Guidance Counseling |url=http://www.lostmag.com/issue6/counseling.php |magazine=LOST Magazine |location=New York City |publisher=lostmag.com |access-date=2017-01-06 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120617014549/http://www.lostmag.com/issue6/counseling.php |archive-date=2012-06-17 }}</ref> or vicariously experienced the thrills of her rebellious behavior.<ref name=white /><ref name=adams /> Reading the book for such vicarious experience has been suggested as a positive alternative to actually doing drugs.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Anderson |first=Julie |date=November 2002 |title=When Parents' Rights Are Wrong: Should Parents Be Able to Prohibit Their Kids From Reading School Library Books? |journal=School Library Journal |volume=48 |issue=11 |pages=43 |via=ProQuest  }}</ref> ''Go Ask Alice'' has also been used in curricula dealing with mood swings<ref>{{cite book |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=A Study Guide for Joanne Greenberg's "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden" |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ulCVDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT33 |location=Farmington Hills, Michigan |publisher=[[Gale (publisher)|Gale]], [[Cengage Learning]] |page=PT 33 |date=2016 |isbn=9781410348944 |series=Novels for Students |quote=The novel ''Go Ask Alice'' (1971), by James Jennings, written in diary form, tell [sic] the story of a teenage girl who suffers from terrible mood swings that are exacerbated by drug use. }} Although this source identifies the book's author as "James Jennings", without further discussion, no other reliable source support has been found for a person named James Jennings being an author or co-author of the book.</ref> and death.
{{anchor|Authorship}}

==Authorship and veracity controversies==
Although ''Go Ask Alice'' has been credited to an anonymous author since its publication, and was originally promoted as the real, albeit edited, diary of a teenage girl, over time the book has come to be regarded by researchers as a [[fake memoirs|fake memoir]] written by Beatrice Sparks,<ref name="Esq"/><ref name=nilsenreminiscing /><ref name=yagoda /><ref name=mikkelson /><ref name=white /><ref name=hendley /><ref name=katsoulis /><ref name=goldberg /> possibly with the help of one or more co-authors.<ref name=oppenheimer /> Despite significant evidence of Sparks' authorship, a percentage of readers and educators have continued to believe that the book is a true-life account of a teenage girl.<ref name=yagoda /><ref name=katsoulis /><ref name=goldberg />

===Beatrice Sparks authorship controversy===
''Go Ask Alice'' was originally published by [[Prentice Hall]] in 1971 as the work of an unnamed author "Anonymous". The original edition contained a note signed by "The Editors" that included the statements, "''Go Ask Alice'' is based on the actual diary of a fifteen-year-old drug user....Names, dates, places and certain events have been changed in accordance with the wishes of those concerned."<ref name=yagoda>{{cite book |last=Yagoda |first=Ben |date=2009 |title=Memoir: A History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Tp1vhUQf68EC&pg=PT158 |location=New York City |publisher=Riverhead Books (Penguin Group (USA)) |page=PT158 |isbn=978-1-101-15147-1}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Anonymous |date=1971 |title=Go Ask Alice |location=[[Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey]] |publisher=Prentice-Hall Inc. |edition=First }}</ref> The paperback edition first published in 1972 by [[Avon (publisher)|Avon Books]] contained the words "A Real Diary" on the front cover just above the title,<ref>{{cite book |author=Anonymous |date=1971 |publication-date=1972 |title=Go Ask Alice |location=New York City |publisher=[[Avon (publisher)|Avon Books]] |page=Front cover |no-pp=yes |lccn=74-159446 |edition=First paperback |id=Avon Catalog N431}}</ref> and the same words were included on the front covers of some later editions.<ref name=adams /> [[File:Go_Ask_Alice_-_Avon_Books_paperback_edition_cover_art.jpg|thumb|left|The cover art of the Avon Books paperback edition of ''Go Ask Alice'' presented it as "A Real Diary".]]

Upon its publication, almost all contemporary reviewers and the general public accepted it as primarily authored by an anonymous teenager. According to Lauren Adams, ''[[Publishers Weekly]]'' magazine was the only source to question the book's authenticity on the grounds that it "seem[ed] awfully well written".<ref name=adams /> Reviews described the book as either the authentic diary of a real teenage girl,<ref name=oppenheimer /><ref name=loebker /><ref name=durchschlag>{{cite news |last=Durchschlag |first=Beth |date=1971-08-25 |title=The Girl Who Lived Next Door&nbsp;– Till Drugs Killed Her |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/181381679/ |newspaper=[[Courier-Post]]|location=Camden, New Jersey|page=30|access-date=2017-01-07 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription  |quote=For Alice was real and could have lived next door; her parents...decided to let her story be told.}}</ref> or as an edited or slightly fictionalized version of her authentic diary.<ref name=janke>{{cite news |last=Janke |first=Lynn |date=1971-12-18 |title=Death Hovers Over Dismal Drug Scene: Overdose Victim Leaves a Diary |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/105774143/ |newspaper=The Indianapolis Star |page=6 |access-date=2016-12-21 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription  |quote="Go Ask Alice," written anonymously, is based on the actual diary of a girl "turned on" to drugs when she was 15.}}</ref><ref name=cumberland>{{cite news |last=Cumberland |first=Donna, Assistant Librarian |date=1972-01-21 |title=Library Jottings: Books For Winter |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/18268671/ |newspaper=[[The Herald Bulletin|Anderson Daily Bulletin]] |location=[[Anderson, Indiana]] |page=8 |access-date=2016-12-21 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription  |quote=The diary is published by her parents, who wish to remain anonymous...Some events have been changed to protect them, so the book is classified as fiction...}}</ref> Some sources claimed that the girl's parents had arranged for her diary to be published after her death.<ref name=foster /><ref name=durchschlag /><ref name=cumberland /> However, according to Alleen Pace Nilsen, a "reputable source in the publishing world" allegedly said that the book was published anonymously because the parents had initiated legal action and threatened to sue if the published book could be traced back to their daughter.<ref name=nilsenhouse />

Not long after ''Go Ask Alice''{{'}}s publication, Beatrice Sparks began making public appearances presenting herself as the book's editor.<ref name=white /> (Ellen Roberts, who in the early 1970s was an editor at Prentice Hall,<ref>{{cite book |last=dePaola |first=Tomie |date=2015 |title=The Magical World of Strega Nona: A Treasury |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tKTjDAAAQBAJ&pg=PR6 |location=New York City |publisher=Nancy Paulsen Books (Penguin Group (USA))|page=vi |isbn=9780399173455 |author-link=Tomie dePaola }}</ref> was also credited at that time with having edited the book;<ref>{{cite news |date=1975-03-08 |title=Teachers To Discuss Textbook Censorship |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/52861588/ |newspaper=[[Kansas City Times]] |location=[[Kansas City, Missouri]] |page=4A |access-date=2016-12-21 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription  |agency=[[The Kansas City Star|The Star]]'s Own Service}}</ref> a later source refers to Roberts as having "consulted" on the book.)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://chrispygal.weebly.com/home/ok-this-is-really-happening |title=Christine Potter: Time Travels: OK, This Is Really Happening... |last=Potter |first=Christine |date=2015-09-25 |website=Chrispygal.weebly.com |access-date=2016-12-29 |quote=I worked with editor Ellen Roberts, who'd consulted on the old YA diary ''Go Ask Alice''. |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161229193738/http://chrispygal.weebly.com/home/ok-this-is-really-happening |archive-date=2016-12-29 }}</ref> According to Caitlin White, when Sparks' name became public, some researchers discovered that copyright records listed Sparks as the sole author—not editor—of the book, raising questions about whether she had written it herself.<ref name=white /> Suspicions were heightened in 1979 after two newly published books about troubled teenagers (''Voices'' and ''[[Jay's Journal]]'') advertised Sparks' involvement by calling her "the author who brought you ''Go Ask Alice''".<ref name="Esq"/><ref name=nilsenhouse /><ref name=adams /><ref>{{cite news |author=B. Dalton |author-link=B. Dalton  |date=1978-10-15 |title=Voices (advertisement) |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/165717619/ |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |page=18 (Book Review section) |access-date=2017-01-06 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription  }}</ref>

In an article by Nilsen, based in part on interviews with Sparks and published in the October 1979 issue of ''[[School Library Journal]]'', Sparks said that she had received the diaries that became ''Go Ask Alice'' from a girl she had befriended at a youth conference. The girl allegedly gave Sparks her diaries in order to help Sparks understand the experiences of young drug users and to prevent her parents from reading them. According to Sparks, the girl later died, although not of an overdose. Sparks said she had then transcribed the diaries, destroying parts of them in the process (with the remaining portions locked in the publisher's vault and unavailable for review by Nilsen or other investigators), and added various fictional elements, including the overdose death. Although Sparks did not confirm or deny the allegations that the diarist's parents had threatened a lawsuit, she did say that in order to get a release from the parents, she had only sought to use the diaries as a "basis to which she would add other incidents and thoughts gleaned from similar case studies," according to Nilsen.<ref name=nilsenhouse />

Nilsen wrote that Sparks now wanted to be seen as the author of the popular ''Go Ask Alice'' in order to promote additional books in the same vein that she had published or was planning to publish. (These books included ''Jay's Journal'', another alleged diary of a real teenager that Sparks was later accused of mostly authoring herself.<ref name=dieterle />) Nilsen concluded, "The question of how much of ''Go Ask Alice'' was written by the real Alice and how much by Beatrice Sparks can only be conjectured."<ref name=nilsenhouse /> Journalist Melissa Katsoulis, in her 2009 history of literary hoaxes ''Telling Tales'', wrote that Sparks was never able to substantiate her claim that ''Go Ask Alice'' was based on the real diary of a real girl and that copyright records continued to list her as the sole author of the work.<ref name=katsoulis />

Urban folklore expert Barbara Mikkelson of [[snopes.com]] has written that even before the authorship revelations, ample evidence indicated that ''Go Ask Alice'' was not an actual diary. According to Mikkelson, the writing style and content—including a lengthy description of an LSD trip but relatively little about "the loss of [the diarist's] one true love", school, gossip, or ordinary "chit-chat"—seems uncharacteristic of a teenage girl's diary.<ref name=mikkelson /> The sophisticated vocabulary of the diary suggested that it had been written by an adult rather than a teen.<ref name=mikkelson /><ref name=bisbort>{{cite book |last=Bisbort |first=Alan |title=Media Scandals |year=2008 |series=Scandals in American History |url=https://archive.org/details/mediascandals0000bisb |url-access=registration |location=Westport, Connecticut |publisher=Greenwood Press|page=[https://archive.org/details/mediascandals0000bisb/page/93 93] |isbn=9780313347658 |issn=1942-0102 }}</ref> Mikkelson also noted that in the decades since the book's publication, no one who knew the diarist had ever been tracked down by a reporter or otherwise spoken about or identified the diarist.<ref name=mikkelson />

In hindsight, commentators have suggested various motivations for the publishers to present ''Go Ask Alice'' as the work of an anonymous deceased teenager, such as avoiding literary criticism,<ref name=goldberg /> lending validity to an otherwise improbable story,<ref name=goldberg /> and stimulating young readers' interest by having the book's anti-drug advice come from a teenager rather than an adult. Sparks said that while there were "many reasons" for publishing the book anonymously, her main reason was to make it more credible to young readers.<ref name=nilsenhouse /> Although the book has been classified as fiction (see [[#Fiction|Treatment of book as fiction and non-fiction]]), the publisher has continued to list its author as "Anonymous".

===Controversies involving other works by Sparks===
Sparks was involved in a similar controversy regarding the veracity of her second diary project, the 1979 book ''[[Jay's Journal]]''.<ref name="Esq"/> It was allegedly the real diary, edited by Sparks, of a teenage boy who died by [[suicide]] after becoming involved with the [[occult]].<ref name=goldberg /> The publisher's initial marketing of the book raised questions about whether Sparks had edited a real teenager's diary or written a fictional diary, and recalled the same controversy with respect to ''Go Ask Alice''.<ref>{{cite news |last=Schwartz |first=Sheila |date=1980-09-21 |title='Jay's Journal' Deplorable  |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/114376157/ |page=17B |newspaper=Poughkeepsie Journal |location=[[Poughkeepsie, New York]] |access-date=2017-01-05 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription  }}</ref> Later, the family of real-life teenage suicide Alden Barrett contended that ''Jay's Journal'' used 21 entries from Barrett's real diary that the family had given to Sparks, but that the other 191 entries in the published book had been fictionalized or fabricated by Sparks, and that Barrett had not been involved with the occult or "devil worship".<ref name=dieterle>{{cite news|last=Dieterle |first=Ben |date=2004-06-03 |title=Teen Death Diary |url=http://www.slweekly.com/editorial/2004/feat_2004-06-03.cfm |url-status=dead |newspaper=Salt Lake City Weekly |location=Salt Lake City, Utah |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060629192655/http://www.slweekly.com/editorial/2004/feat_2004-06-03.cfm |archive-date=2006-06-29 |access-date=2016-12-22 }}</ref>

Sparks went on to produce numerous other books presented as diaries of anonymous troubled teens (including ''Annie's Baby: The Diary of Anonymous, a Pregnant Teenager'' and ''It Happened to Nancy: By an Anonymous Teenager'') or edited transcripts of therapy sessions with teens (including ''[[Almost Lost: The True Story of an Anonymous Teenager's Life on the Streets]]''). Some commentators have noted that these books use writing styles similar to ''Go Ask Alice''<ref name=adams /> and contain similar themes, such as tragic consequences for spending time with bad companions, a protagonist who initially gets into trouble by accident or through someone else's actions, and portrayal of premarital sex and homosexuality as always wrong.<ref name=goldberg /> Although Sparks was typically listed on these books as editor or preparer, the number of similar books that Sparks published, making her "arguably the most prolific Anonymous author in publishing",<ref name=bisbort /> fueled suspicions that she wrote ''Go Ask Alice''.<ref name=adams /><ref name=bisbort />

===Linda Glovach authorship claims===
In a 1998 ''New York Times'' book review, Mark Oppenheimer suggested that ''Go Ask Alice'' had at least one author besides Sparks. He identified Linda Glovach, an author of [[young-adult novel]]s, as "one of the 'preparers'—let's call them forgers—of ''Go Ask Alice''", although he did not give his source for this claim.<ref name=oppenheimer /> ''Publishers Weekly'', in a review of Glovach's 1998 novel ''Beauty Queen'' (which told the story, in diary form, of a 19-year-old girl addicted to [[heroin]]),<ref>{{cite book |last=Glovach |first=Linda |date=1998 |title=Beauty Queen |location=New York City |publisher=HarperCollins |isbn=978-0-06-205161-5 }}</ref> also stated that Glovach was "a co-author of ''Go Ask Alice''".<ref name=pw>{{cite magazine |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Beauty Queen |url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-06-205161-5 |magazine=[[Publishers Weekly]] |location=New York City |publisher=publishersweekly.com |access-date=2016-12-22 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161222161131/http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-06-205161-5 |archive-date=2016-12-22 |quote=FYI: Glovach is a co-author of Go Ask Alice.}}</ref>  No sources were offered for the claim of Glovach's alleged involvement with the work, which is not widely accepted.

{{anchor|Fiction}}

==Treatment of book as fiction and non-fiction==
[[File:Go_Ask_Alice_-_Cover_art_of_2011_Arrow_Books_(UK)_paperback_edition.jpg|thumb|right|Cover of the 2011 Arrow Books paperback edition, containing the words "This Is Alice's True Story"]]Following Sparks' statements that she had added fictional elements to ''Go Ask Alice'', the book was classified by its publishers as fiction<ref name="Esq"/> (and remains so classified as of 2016) and a disclaimer was added to the copyright page: "This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination, and [[all persons fictitious disclaimer|any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental]]."<ref name=yagoda />

Despite the classification and the disclaimer, ''Go Ask Alice'' has frequently been taught as non-fiction in schools and sold as non-fiction in bookstores.<ref name=goldberg /> The publishers also continued to suggest that the book was true by including the "Editors' Note" stating that the book was based on an actual diary, and listing the author as "Anonymous", with no mention of Sparks.<ref name=yagoda /> As of 2011, a UK paperback edition published and marketed by [[Random House|Arrow Books]] contained the statement "This Is Alice's True Story" on the front cover.<ref name=alicearrow />

==Censorship==
''Go Ask Alice'' has been a frequent target of censorship [[challenge (literature)|challenge]]s due to its inclusion of profanity and references to runaways, drugs, sex, and rape.<ref name=businessclarksville /> Alleen Pace Nilsen wrote that in 1973, ''Go Ask Alice'' was "''the'' book that teens wanted to read and that adults wanted to censor" and that the censors "felt the book did more to glorify sex and drugs than to frighten kids away from them."<ref name=nilsenreminiscing /> Challenges began in the early 1970s following the initial publication of the book, and continued at a high rate through the ensuing decades.<ref name=businessclarksville />

Some challenges resulted in the removal of the book from libraries, or in parental permission being required for a student to check the book out of a library.<ref name=businessclarksville /> According to ''The New York Times'', in the 1970s it became common practice for school libraries to keep ''Go Ask Alice'' off library shelves and make it available to students only upon request, a practice that was criticized as being a form of censorship.<ref name=whatreviewerswrote /> A 1982 survey of school librarians across the United States, co-sponsored by the [[National Council of Teachers of English]], found that ''Go Ask Alice'' was the most frequently censored book in high school libraries.<ref>{{cite news |author=The Associated Press| author-link=Associated Press |date=1982-11-28 |title=Librarians Say 'Go Ask Alice' Is Censored Most in Schools | work=The New York Times |page=73 |via=ProQuest  }}</ref><ref name=schoollibrary>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/135026205/ |title=School Library Censorship Increasing |date=1982-12-05 |newspaper=[[The Palm Beach Post]] |location=[[Palm Beach County, Florida]] |access-date=2016-12-22 |page=AA10 |agency=Associated Press| via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription  }}</ref>

Decades after its original publication, ''Go Ask Alice'' became one of the most challenged books of the 1990s and 2000s. On the [[American Library Association]] (ALA) list of the 100 most frequently challenged books of the 1990s, ''Go Ask Alice'' was ranked at number 25;<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ala.org/bbooks/100-most-frequently-challenged-books-1990%E2%80%931999 |title=100 Most Frequently Challenged Books: 1990–1999 |website=ALA.org |publisher=[[American Library Association]] |access-date=2016-12-18 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161113175203/http://www.ala.org/bbooks/100-most-frequently-challenged-books-1990%E2%80%931999 |archive-date=2016-11-13 }}</ref> on the ALA list compiled for the 2000s, it rose to position 18.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ala.org/bbooks/top-100-bannedchallenged-books-2000-2009 |title=Top 100 Banned/ Challenged Books: 2000-2009 |website=ALA.org |date=26 March 2013 |publisher=[[American Library Association]] |access-date=2016-12-18 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161213015126/http://www.ala.org/bbooks/top-100-bannedchallenged-books-2000-2009 |archive-date=2016-12-13 }}</ref>

The likely authoring of the book by one or more adults rather than by an unnamed teenage girl has not been an issue in censorship disputes.<ref name=yagoda /><ref name=businessclarksville /> Nilsen and others have criticized this on the basis that the dishonesty of presenting a probable fake memoir to young readers as real should raise greater concerns than the content.<ref name=nilsenreminiscing /><ref name=goldberg /><ref name=valentine />

==Adaptations==
The [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] television network broadcast a made-for-television movie, ''Go Ask Alice'', based on the book. It starred Jamie Smith-Jackson, [[William Shatner]], [[Ruth Roman]], [[Wendell Burton]], [[Julie Adams]], and [[Andy Griffith]].<ref name=foster>{{cite news |last=Foster |first=Bob |date=1973-01-08 |title=Screenings |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/51898778 |newspaper=[[San Mateo County Times|The Times]] |location=[[San Mateo County, California]] |page=12 |access-date=2016-12-20 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription  }}</ref>  Also among the cast were [[Robert Carradine]], [[Mackenzie Phillips]], and [[Charles Martin Smith]].<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Maltin |editor-first=Leonard |date=1994 |title=Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide |edition=1995 |location=New York City |publisher=Plume |page=494 |isbn=978-0451181725 |editor-link=Leonard Maltin }}</ref> The film was promoted as an anti-drug film based on a true story.<ref name=foster />

The film was first aired as the ''[[ABC Movie of the Week]]'' on January 24, 1973.<ref name=foster /><ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=1973-01-24 |title=A World Premiere! Go Ask Alice (advertisement) |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/118337989/ |newspaper=[[The Arizona Republic]] |location=[[Phoenix, Arizona]] |page=E–4 |access-date=2016-12-27 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription  }}</ref> It was subsequently rebroadcast on October 24, 1973, and the network also made screening copies available to school, church and civic groups upon request.<ref name=holston>{{cite news |last=Holston |first=Noel |date=1973-10-24 |title=Television: 'Alice' Powerful Drug Statement |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/236704163/ |newspaper=[[Orlando Sentinel|Orlando Sentinel Star]] |location=Orlando, Florida |page=12–D |access-date=2016-12-20 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription  }}</ref> The film drew generally good reviews<ref name=foster /><ref name=oconnor>{{cite news |last=O'Connor |first=John J. |date=1973-02-11 |page=D21 |title='Go Ask Alice': A Good Trip |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/218712212/ |newspaper=The Baltimore Sun |access-date=2016-12-20 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription  }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Hoffmann |first=Steve |date=1973-01-24 |page=8 |title=TV and Radio: 'Go Ask Alice' Is TV Must Tonight |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/101039778/ |newspaper=The Cincinnati Enquirer |access-date=2016-12-20 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription  }}</ref><ref name=awardwinning>{{cite news |date=1973-10-23 |page=A 6 |title=Award-Winning Film Scheduled |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/44060754/ |newspaper=[[The Mercury (Pennsylvania)|The Mercury]] |location=[[Pottstown, Pennsylvania]] |access-date=2016-12-27 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription  }}</ref> (with one critic calling it "the finest anti-drug drama ever presented by TV"<ref name=awardwinning />), but was also criticized for lacking the complexity of the book<ref name=oconnor /> and for not offering any solutions to the problem of teen drug addiction.<ref>{{cite news |last=Holsopple |first=Barbara |date=1973-01-23 |page=45 |title=ABC Drug Movie A Bad Trip: Currie Consistently Currie Despite Marie's Maneuvering: Go Ask Alice What? |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/147514830 |newspaper=[[Pittsburgh Press]] |access-date=2016-12-20 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription }}</ref> The adaptation by Ellen Violett was nominated for an [[Emmy Award]].<ref name=holston />

In 1976, a stage play version of the book, adapted by Frank Shiras, was published by The Dramatic Publishing Company.<ref name=shiras /> The play has been produced by various high school and community theatre groups.<ref>{{cite news |last=Coupe |first=Kevin  |date=1980-05-17 |title='Go Ask Alice'? You Ask... |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/162584010/ |newspaper=[[The Journal News]] |location=[[White Plains, New York]] |page=4A |access-date=2016-12-29 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription  }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=1984-03-07 |title='Go Ask Alice' Opens Thursday |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/79297184/ |newspaper=Gaffney Ledger |location=[[Gaffney, South Carolina]] |page=6A |access-date=2016-12-29 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription  }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Molinaro |first=Frances  |date=1984-08-16 |title=2 Women Put Love for Theater to Work |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/146795300/ |newspaper=[[Asbury Park Press]] |location=[[Asbury Park, New Jersey]] |page=C15 |access-date=2016-12-29 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription  }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=1991-04-18 |title=Woodstock Students Open 'Go Ask Alice' |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/191833494 |newspaper=[[Northwest Herald]] |location=[[Crystal Lake, Illinois]] |page=3 (Section D) |access-date=2016-12-29 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription  }}</ref>

A 2012 novel called ''[[Lucy in the Sky (novel)|Lucy in the Sky]]'' was published anonymously, featuring the story of a preppy [[Santa Monica]] student who falls into drug addiction and alcoholism. Critics compared the book with ''Go Ask Alice'' and viewed the 2012 book negatively, considering it a modernized copy of ''Go Ask Alice'' rather than its own story.

== In popular culture ==

Stand-up comedian [[Paul F. Tompkins]]' 2009 comedy album ''Freak Wharf'' contains a track titled "Go Ask Alice" in which he derides the book as "the phoniest of balonies" and jokingly suggests it was authored by the writing staff of the police drama series ''[[Dragnet (series)|Dragnet]]''. The album title comes from a passage in the book in which the diarist refers to a mental hospital as a "freak wharf".<ref>{{cite web |last1=Tompkins |first1=Paul F. |title=Go Ask Alice |website=[[YouTube]] |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfnM_uCg-Tk |language=en|date=2009-12-01}}</ref>

American band [[Ice Nine Kills]] drew inspiration from the book for their song "Alice" on the 2015 album ''[[Every Trick in the Book]]''.

Musical artist [[Melanie Martinez]] based her unreleased track, "Birthing Addicts", on the book in 2011. The song was originally written for an extra credit assignment at her school. It was meant to be on her unreleased EP, ''Take Me to the Moon'', but was scrapped upon completion.

== References ==
{{reflist|25em}}
https://web.archive.org/web/20200917231443/https://cocatalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?v1=42&ti=1%2C42&SEQ=20200917191404&Search_Arg=Martinez%2C+Melanie&Search_Code=NALL&CNT=100&PID=Qxr8XR9ipp0748zO-goO6S9f8Sf9Q&SID=8

https://web.archive.org/web/20121008055040/http://www.youtube.com:80/user/Melmartinezx3

== External links ==
* [http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/goaskalice/ Go ask Alice at Spark Notes]
* {{IMDb title|qid=Q20827680|title=Go Ask Alice}}
* https://archive.org/details/goaskalice00alic<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/goaskalice00alic|isbn = 9780133571110|title = Go ask Alice|year = 1971|last1 = Sparks|first1 = Beatrice| publisher=Prentice-Hall }}</ref>

{{Beatrice Sparks}}

[[Category:1971 American novels]]
[[Category:Fictional diaries]]
[[Category:Literary forgeries]]
[[Category:Novels about substance abuse]]
[[Category:Simon & Schuster books]]
[[Category:Drug control law in the United States]]
[[Category:Works by Beatrice Sparks]]
[[Category:Works published anonymously]]
[[Category:Written fiction presented as fact]]
[[Category:1973 television films]]
[[Category:1973 films]]
[[Category:ABC Movie of the Week]]
[[Category:Metromedia Producers Corporation films]]
[[Category:American young adult novels]]
[[Category:American novels adapted into films]]
[[Category:American novels adapted into television shows]]
[[Category:Novels about rape]]
[[Category:Obscenity controversies in literature]]
[[Category:American novels adapted into plays]]
[[Category:Propaganda books and pamphlets]]
[[Category:Censored books]]