Why would a censor in 1964 worry about a book published more than a century earlier? Perhaps a Gothic horror story featuring fornicating nuns and priests was just too much. Or maybe this historical curiosity was packed in a racy, titillating cover?
This classic American novel critiques marriage, gender roles and masculinity. So was it the sex or the reproductive choices that attracted the ire of the censor?
An instant bestseller in Britain, ‘Catch-22’ was banned in Ireland from 1962 to 1974. There’s lots of sex in this book but the first sentence was the reason it was banned.
Forever Amber is the original bonkbuster, whose commercial success led to Peyton Place (1956) and Riders (1985).
Banned in Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Massachusetts as indecent, it sold millions of copies in the 1940s. Restoration England was the perfect backdrop for a lush, romantic romp but does the book deliver smut galore?
Was Jack Kerouac a pilgrim or self-obsessed wanker? Featuring an indecent orgy in the name of religion, this book was censored in 1963.
Apparently, describing three single girls navigating the NY dating scene was censorship-worthy literature in 1958.
A stalwart of my bookshelves, this book was rediscovered after it featured in ‘Mad Men’.
