Comstockery and censorship in early American modernism / Karen E. Mahar
Date
2011
Authors
Mahar, Karen E.
University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Arts and Science
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Dept. of English, 2011
Abstract
Anthony Comstock was a moral crusader who abhorred all things lewd and obscene, and
who was successful in introducing the Comstock Law to help his fight against it. His lifelong
battle against vice at the end of the nineteenth-century had an impact on literature
and the literary world as it transitioned from Victorian prudery to modernist realism.
Comstock’s influence negatively affected publishers, distributers, and writers, in
particular, canonical Americans Walt Whitman and Theodore Dreiser. His methods were
unconventional, and in the name of morality, Comstock often behaved immorally to
achieve his goals of protecting youth from being corrupted by obscenity. The question of
the value of censorship was present then, as it still endures today, and centered on the
potential harm of viewing or reading obscene materials. Although Comstock presented an
impressive record of confiscations and arrests, his crusade did not have a lasting effect
beyond the fin de siècle.
Description
vi, 99 leaves ; 29 cm
Keywords
Comstock, Anthony, 1844-1915 , Literature and morals -- United States -- History -- 19th century , Censorship -- United States -- History -- 19th century , Social reformers -- United States , Dissertations, Academic