Control of Obscenity

Archive Report

New Controversy Over Postal Censorship

Lack of Uniform Definition of Obscenity

Fundamental disagreement between reasonable men, basic to the unending controversy over defining and controlling obscenity, has lately been pointed up by the legal battle involving the controversial book Lady Chatterley's Lover. Postmaster General Arthur E. Summer field barred the unexpurgated edition of the D. H. Lawrence novel from the U.S. mails on June 11, stating that “Any literary merit the book may have is far outweighed by the pornographic and smutty passages and words, so that the book, taken as a whole, is an obscene and filthy work.” The Post Office ban was upset, July 21, by Federal Judge Frederick van Pelt Bryan. Examining the novel in the light of the same judicial standards for ...

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