During the first half of the 20th century, books were suppressed under state obscenity laws, prohibited from transport by postal regulations, or blocked from import by tariffs. Suppression was most often based on a book's treatment of social issues or perceived obscenity, without consideration of literary merit.
Here are some examples of books supressed under these laws:
Ulysses
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The unique Dublin Illustrated Edition, endorsed by The James Joyce Centre, meticulously recreates the 1922 text. Ulysses chronicles the passage of Leopold Bloom through Dublin during an ordinary day, 16 June 1904.
Sanctuary
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A powerful novel examining the nature of evil, informed by the works of T. S. Eliot and Freud, mythology, local lore, and hardboiled detective fiction. Sanctuary is the dark, at times brutal, story of the kidnapping of Mississippi debutante Temple Drake, who introduces her own form of venality into the Memphis underworld where she is being held.
Tropic of Cancer
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Now hailed as an American classic, Tropic of Cancer was banned as obscene in this country for twenty-seven years after its first publication in Paris in 1934. Only a historic court ruling permitted the publication of this first volume of Miller's famed mixture of memoir and fiction.
Tropic of Capricorn
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Banned in America for almost thirty years because of its explicit sexual content, this companion volume to Miller's Tropic of Cancer chronicles his life in 1920s New York City. The Tropic of Capricorn is now considered a cornerstone of modern literature.
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