Comstock Law Book Banning in U.S.
- Artist/Author/Producer: Writers
- Confronting Bodies: New York Society for the Suppression of Vice
- Dates of action: 1873
- Location: United States
- Description of the Art Work
- Many greatest classics such as Aristophanes Lysistrata, Rabelais's
Gargantua, Chaucer's Canterbury tales, Boccaccio's Decameron, and the
Arabian Nights.
- Description of incident
- "...Books banned from the U. S. mails under the Comstock Law included
many of the greatest classics: Aristophanes Lysistrata, Rabelais's
Gargantua, Chaucer's Canterbury tales, Boccaccio's Decameron and even The
Arabian Nights. Furthermore, Heins includes modern authors censored under
the Comstock Law. "..Honore de Balzac, Victor Hugo, Oscar Wilde, Ernst
Hemingway, John Dos Passos, Eugene O' Neil, James Joyce, D.H. Lawrence,
Clifford Odets Erskine Caldwell, John Steinbeck, William Faulkner, F.
Scott Fitzgerald...to name just a few." Sex, Sin and Blasphemy, Marjorie
Heins pg. 19
"Founder of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice (1872),
whose slogans were: "Morals not Art and Literature!" and "Books are
feeders for brothels!" Comstock campaigned tirelessly for censorship laws
not only to stamp out erotic subject matter in art or literature, but to
suppress information about sexuality, reproduction, and birth control. In
1873 he persuaded Congress (after less than an hour of debate) to pass
the law (Federal Anti-Obscenity Act)that banned the mailing of materials
found to be "lewd", "indecent", "filthy", or "obscene." Sex, Sin and
Blasphemy, Marjorie Heins pg. 19
Furthermore Comstock was appointed a special agent of the U.S. Post
Office, as such allowed to carry a gun and attack pornographers." (The
Encyclopedia of Censorship, Jonathon Green, Facts on File , N.Y.C. Pg.
62-63) Over the next forty years Comstock prosecuted 3,500 individuals
(although no more than 10% were found guilty) and had destroyed 120 tons
of literature.
- Results of incident
- "..The Comstock Law remains on the books today, although the ban on
information about birth control has been eliminated. In 1896 the court
ruled that the federal Comstock Law didnšt cover vulgar insults." Sex,
Sin, and Blasphemy, Marjorie Heins, pg.19
Source: New York Public Library, New York City