Walter J. Minton, Publisher of “Lolita” and Other Controversial Books, Dies
Walter J. Minton, head of G.P. Putnam’s for many years, and who was the only American publisher willing to publish Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita in 1958, died on this day.
In the long campaign against censorship of books and other forms of expression, credit is due not only the authors of controversial books (or magazines or comic books, of directors of films, or painters or sculptors) but also to their publishers who were willing to risk financial ruin by accepting books likely to be banned (which would result in hefty legal fees in fighting any bans).
Walter Minton is one of the publishers who deserves much credit in this regard. He succeeded his father as the head of Putnam’s in 1955 and remained head of the company for 23 years. He was removed in 1978 by the media conglomerate which had acquired the company.
In addition to Lolita, Minton published such controversial books as Norman Mailer’s The Deer Park, and John Cleland’s notorious 1749 novel Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure. The latter was censored and the case resulted in an important Supreme Court decision on freedom of expression (Memoirs v. Massachusetts, 1966).
After four other American publishers rejected Lolita, Minton reportedly flew through a snowstorm in a small plane to Ithaca, New York to talk with Nabokov and sign him to a contract. When Lolita was finally published, The New York Times reviewer labeled it “repulsive” and “highbrow pornography.” Lolita today is regarded as one of the greatest English-language novels.
Read the great novel: Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita (many editions)
And read: Brian Boyd, Vladimir Nabokov: The American Years (1991)
Visit the Nabokovian web site