The role of the obscenity trials of Grove Press and City Lights Press
in liberalising American publishing
Lauren Nesworthy
Abstract
Two American publishing houses that were subject to multiple legal battles and obscenity trials during the 1950s and 60s were City Lights Press and Grove Press. Over time, both houses have become renowned for publishing literary material dealing with drugs, explicit sexual practices and various other examples of illicit content, such as Howl and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg and The Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller. Opinions were widely divided but equally determined throughout the trials of each publisher, as Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Michael Musmanno insisted that Tropic of Cancer was “not a book. It is a cesspool, an open sewer, a pit of putrefaction, a slimy gathering of all that is rotten in the debris of human depravity”, while California State Superior Court Judge Clayton Horn argued that Howl and Other Poems was of “redeeming social importance”. By closely examining each trial, I intend to argue that as a result of the publishers’ decision to defend their right to publish these titles, the concept of censorship on the grounds of obscenity was no longer so straightforward, as the frequency of books being banned for obscenity began to decrease in the following decades.
in liberalising American publishing
Lauren Nesworthy
Abstract
Two American publishing houses that were subject to multiple legal battles and obscenity trials during the 1950s and 60s were City Lights Press and Grove Press. Over time, both houses have become renowned for publishing literary material dealing with drugs, explicit sexual practices and various other examples of illicit content, such as Howl and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg and The Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller. Opinions were widely divided but equally determined throughout the trials of each publisher, as Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Michael Musmanno insisted that Tropic of Cancer was “not a book. It is a cesspool, an open sewer, a pit of putrefaction, a slimy gathering of all that is rotten in the debris of human depravity”, while California State Superior Court Judge Clayton Horn argued that Howl and Other Poems was of “redeeming social importance”. By closely examining each trial, I intend to argue that as a result of the publishers’ decision to defend their right to publish these titles, the concept of censorship on the grounds of obscenity was no longer so straightforward, as the frequency of books being banned for obscenity began to decrease in the following decades.