This sounds like a book that would have been banned, but I cannot find any specific instance. I find comments like the following:
Sister Carrie is a long book; but it’s a quick read because it’s also a good one – a page-turner, if you will. It was practically banned on its publication, not because of its content, which would have been questionable and controversial, but because the author’s apparent indifference towards the morality of the content.
Unlike the literature of the time, Carrie’s behavior is neither good nor bad – to Dreiser, nor to his reader – it simply is. She’s a young girl, who has moved to a city and she doesn’t settle with her lot of being a poor, working class girl. Instead she uses her beauty and her intelligence to climb the social ladder. The means by which she does this involve promiscuity – in the original sense of the word; sex outside of marriage – which was Not Okay in the early 20th century.
Confronting Bodies: New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, Western Society for the Prevention of Vice, Boston's District Attorney
Date of Action: 1900, 1916, 1921, 1923, 1927, 1929, 1931
Specific Location: The United States
Description of Artwork: Theodore Dreiser's first novel "Sister Carrie" was the first of Dreiser's works to face censorship. This novel presents a harsh realistic portrayal of city life. Carrie is a working class girl who rises to success through manipulation. The next work to face censorship was "The Genius," which also portrayed city life in an uncompromising way. Dreiser's most successful novel, "An American Tragedy", also faced censorship. In this novel the main character is charged with the murder of his pregnant lover and faces the electric chair.
Description of Incident: "Sister Carrie" was withdrawn and edited after complaints about the lack of morality.