D. H. Lawrence

After Lawrence's death, the US Post Office deemed the unexpurgated edition published by Grove Press obscene and ineligible for postal delivery. In 1959, a federal court ruled that the novel was not obscene and overturned the decision, a judgment upheld on appeal in 1960.

State of the evidence

Documented

Person targeted by the proceedings

the publisher Grove Press

Role of the person profiled

Protagonist not prosecuted

Penguin published the unexpurgated edition in the United Kingdom to test the Obscene Publications Act 1959. Prosecuted at the Old Bailey, the publisher was found not guilty on 2 November 1960.

State of the evidence

Documented

Person targeted by the proceedings

Penguin Books

Role of the person profiled

Protagonist not prosecuted

Lawrence had the unexpurgated version of Lady Chatterley's Lover printed in Florence in 1928 for private distribution. For decades, the text could not be published normally in the United Kingdom and was subject to customs and postal bans in the United States.

State of the evidence

Well documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

British police threatened the publisher of Pansies with prosecution unless passages deemed obscene were removed; the British edition was expurgated, while unexpurgated copies circulated from abroad.

State of the evidence

Reported by the press

Attribution

Directly implicated

In July 1929, police raided the Warren Gallery and seized several Lawrence paintings following complaints of indecency. The exhibition became a public scandal concerning depictions of nudity and sexuality.

State of the evidence

Reported by the press

Attribution

Directly implicated

Completed in 1916, Women in Love faced strong publishing reluctance in the climate created by the seizure of The Rainbow. Its first edition appeared in the United States in 1920 as a private subscribers' edition, before the British edition of 1921.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

During the First World War, Lawrence and his German-born wife Frieda were locally suspected of pro-German sympathies and even of signalling to submarines. In October 1917, the authorities ordered them to leave Cornwall under wartime regulations.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

Following publication of The Rainbow, the novel faced obscenity proceedings in Britain; available copies were seized and destroyed. The book's sexual frankness, including a relationship between Ursula and a teacher, and its anti-militarism during wartime fuelled the scandal.

State of the evidence

Well documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

Person targeted by the proceedings

the publisher Methuen

Role of the person profiled

Protagonist not prosecuted