“Plan to Censor All New Literature”
John Sumner, head of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, announced plans on this day for a committee representing publishers and authors that would screen all literary manuscripts to ensure they were not immoral.
Shockingly, the Authors League, which represented authors, supported this voluntary censorship idea. The leaders were concerned that sexually oriented and other immoral works were bringing the book industry into “disrepute.” It was suggested that the effort would be led by a prominent “proconsul,” such as Will Hays, then the head to the movie industry’s self-censorship effort (see June 4, 1922), or Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, who was famous for his actions regarding the 1919 “Black Sox” scandal in professional baseball.
The self-censorship idea never came to fruition, but it was modeled after attempts by the Hollywood studios to develop voluntary self-censorship plans. On October 15, 1927, the studios issued a list of “Don’ts and Be Carefuls,” which included subjects, themes and words that filmmakers should voluntarily avoid. It completely failed. Then on February 19, 1930 the studios developed a voluntary production code listing things filmmakers should avoid. It also failed. Finally, under pressure from a national boycott by religious groups, the studios adopted the infamous Production Code that included a tough enforcement process. It was adopted on June 13, 1934, and exercised a heavy hand of censorship until the late 1960s.
Learn more: Paul Boyer, Purity in Print: The Vice-Society Movement and Book Censorship in America (1968)
Read about the long fight against censorship of the famous novel Ulysses: Kevin Birmingham, The Most Dangerous Book: The Battle for James Joyce’s Ulysses (2014)
Learn about Banned Books Week.