New York Post Office Seizes “Lady Chatterley’s Lover”
The New York Post Office on this day seized 164 copies of D. H. Lawrence’s famous and famously controversial novel, Lady Chatterley’s Lover.
The novel had been banned in the U. S. since it was published in Italy in 1928 because of its strong sexual content. Maverick publisher Barney Rosset, head of Grove Press, finally decided to publish the book in the U.S. The Post Office seized copies that Grove Press was attempting to mail. Two and a half months later, on July 21, 1959, however, a U.S. District Court judge declared the novel not obscene, and it quickly became widely available in the U.S.
Rosset was a crusading opponent of censorship who also successfully fought for release of Henry Miller’s novel, Tropic of Cancer (August 11, 1961; June 22, 1964).
Barney Rossett died on February 21, 2012.
Read the famous novel: D. H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley’s Lover (many editions are available, but make sure you do not get an expurgated edition)
Or watch the recent movie version: Lady Chatterley (2006)
Read Barney Rosset’s autobiography: Rosset: My Life in Publishing and How I Fought Censorship (2016)
Watch an interview with publisher Rosset: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdweTspU_7A
Learn about the struggle against censorship: Charles Rembar, The End of Obscenity: The Trials of Lady Chatterley, Tropic of Cancer, and Fanny Hill (1968)