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banned Books Y LITERATURE SUPPRESSED ON Sexual Grounds Revised Edition DAWN B. SOVA PREFACE BY KEN WACHSBERGER Banned Books: Literature Suppressed on Sexual Grounds, Revised Edition Copyright © 2006 by Dawn B. Sova All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information contact: Facts On File, Inc. An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Sova, Dawn B. Literature suppressed on sexual grounds/Dawn B. Sova.—Rev. ed. p. cm. —(Banned books) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8160-6272-2 (hc: alk. paper) 1. Erotic literature—Censorship—United States—History—20th century. 2. Prohibited books—United States—History—20th century. 3. Erotic literature— Censorship—History. 4. Prohibited books—History. I. Title. II. Banned books (2006) PN56.E7S68 2006 809'.933538—dc22 2005030985 Facts On File books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. Please call our Special Sales Department in New York at (212) 967-8800 or (800) 322-8755. You can fi nd Facts On File on the World Wide Web at http://www.factsonfi le.com Text design by Cathy Rincon Cover design by Salvatore Luongo Printed in the United States of America MP MSRF 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This book is printed on acid-free paper. To my son, Robert Gregor, and to all young people who will try to make the world they have inherited a better place. There is no freedom either in civil or ecclesiastical [affairs], but where the liberty of the press is maintained. —Matthew Tindal If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justifi ed in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justifi ed in silencing mankind. —John Stuart Mill Dare to think for yourself. —Voltaire CONTENTS Acknowledgments vi Preface by Ken Wachsberger vii Introduction ix Works Discussed in This Volume xii LITERATURE SUPPRESSED ON SEXUAL GROUNDS 1 Biographical Profi les 277 Bibliography 295 Works Discussed in the Other Volumes of This Series 311 Index 335 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS he long history of censorship has created many heroes, both famous and Tobscure, authors and publishers who have dared to defy the restrictions of their respective ages in order to reveal truth in their writings. The works of some appear in this volume, but many more were silenced and their works destroyed. To all, however, this book owes both life and purpose. Had they acquiesced to those who challenge, censor, and ban books containing ideas or language that displease vocal minorities, our intellectual universe would be signifi cantly smaller. I am grateful for my association with Bert Holtje of James Peter Associates, Inc., whose support and advice as both literary agent and friend helped me to maintain perspective throughout this lengthy project. His insight and literate commentary helped to resolve seemingly insurmountable problems. My sincere appreciation also belongs to Facts On File, Inc., editor Jeff Soloway, who has taken the originally competent work and with skillful editing made it excellent. Actual works were used to create entries in this volume, giving this book an authenticity that the use of mere summaries could not. This literature, often diffi cult to locate, would not have been available to me without the efforts of I. Macarthur Nickles, director of the Garfi eld (New Jersey) Library, a man whose professional expertise and insight have been invaluable. He has made certain that my sometimes obscure research requests are satisfi ed and continues to introduce innovations in my hometown library. I am also grateful to reference experts Kathleen Zalenski and Karen Calandriello, who tracked down unusual books and odd quotations, dates, and notes, always persevering long after I had given up the chase. In my personal life, no one has meant more to me than my son, Rob Gregor, who helped me to organize my thoughts, contributed insights on various works, and kept me human. I appreciate greatly the support of my parents, my mother Violet Sova and my late father Emil Sova, whose pride in my accomplishments and unwavering confi dence in my abilities have always sustained me. Finally, although I can never meet them, I appreciate the efforts of the many authors over the centuries who risked their livelihoods and lives to stand strong against the oppressive efforts of those who would silence all who refuse to conform. vi PREFACE mericans are proud of their Constitution, especially its Bill of Rights. The AFirst Amendment right to freedom of speech and religion has inspired dis- senters and nonconformists everywhere. Censored writers such as Salman Rush- die, Pramoedya, Ananta Toer, and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn have looked to our country’s example for strength as they battled for their right to express their own thoughts, and for the right of others to read them, even at the risk of their lives. Yet censorship has been a major part of American history from the time of Roger Williams and other early colonial freethinkers. Many of our richest literary works—The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Color Purple, The Grapes of Wrath, The Jungle, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Tropic of Cancer—have been censored at one time or another. Even today school boards, local governments, religious organizations, and moral crusaders attempt to restrict our freedom to read. Advancing technology has provided more diverse targets—the record, fi lm, and television industries and the Internet—for censors and would-be censors to aim at, as they work their strategies to restrict free expression and the freedom to read, watch, and listen, dumbing down materials for the public in order to shield their children, and you, from original or disturbing thoughts. The history of books censored for depicting sexual acts—whether the chosen word was “pornography,” “erotica,” or “obscenity”—is a fascinating ride through our country’s court system, as Dawn Sova shows in this volume of books censored for erotic reasons. It includes such classics as Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Lolita, Tropic of Cancer, Candide, Ulysses, and others that survived court challenges and went on to become recognized as literary classics, not to mention best sellers. In this second edition of the Facts On File Banned Books series, Sova adds several books that were published or that began their censorship struggles too late to make it into the fi rst edition. They include the Alice series, Always Running—La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A., America (The Book): A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction, The Buffalo Tree, How to Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale, and others. History shows that, for those books that survive the challenges, there is no better publicity, no more solid guarantee of best-seller status, than a good court fi ght. But these victories would be impossible without the First Amend- ment, America’s greatest gift to civilization, as well as heroic groups and individu- als who are willing to take up the struggle to defend freedom of the press. Fortunately, the United States has a strong tradition of fi ghting censorship. Groups such as the National Coalition Against Censorship, the vii LITERATURE SUPPRESSED ON SEXUAL GROUNDS American Library Association’s Offi ce for Intellectual Freedom, People For the American Way, the American Civil Liberties Union, the PEN American Center, and the National Writers Union exist to defend the First Amend- ment and support independent writers, through legal action and by raising public awareness. They deserve our moral, political, and fi nancial support. The fi rst edition of the Facts On File Banned Books series came out as a four-volume hardcover set in 1998. The four volumes in this revised and expanded collection add to our rich First Amendment tradition by spotlighting approximately 450 works that have been censored for their political, social, religious, or erotic content, in the United States and around the world, from biblical times to the present day. While many of these have been legally “banned,” or prohibited “as by offi cial order,” all have been banned or censored in a broader sense: targeted for removal from school curricula or library shelves, condemned in churches and forbidden to the faithful, rejected or expurgated by publishers, challenged in court, even voluntarily rewritten by their authors. Censored authors have been verbally abused, physically attacked, shunned by their families and communities, excommunicated from their religious congregations, and shot, hanged, or burned at the stake by their enemies. Their works include novels, histories, biographies, children’s books, religious and philosophical treatises, dic- tionaries, poems, polemics, and every other form of written expression. It is illuminating to discover in these histories that such cultural treasures as the Bible, the Koran, the Talmud, and the greatest classics of world literature have often been suppressed or censored for the same motives, and by similar forces, as those who today seek to censor such books as Daddy’s Room- mate and Heather Has Two Mommies. All Americans reading these volumes will fi nd in them books they love and will undoubtedly be thankful that the authors’ freedom of expression and their own freedom to read are constitu- tionally protected. But at the same time, how many readers will be gratifi ed by the cruel fate of books they detest? Reader-citizens capable of acknowl- edging their own contradictions will be grateful for the existence of the First Amendment and will thank its guardians, including the authors of this series, for protecting the reading public against its worst impulses.

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