Banned!

Three novels, banned as "indecent, lewd and obscene" in the late 1950s and early 1960s, that sent booksellers to jail for selling them and led to landmark U.S. Supreme Court cases...and that are tame by today's standardsDESIGN FOR DEBAUCHERY by March HastingsOriginally published under the title Fear of Incest in 1960, and later retitled for a subsequent release. The book was one of 12 by March Hastings that were deemed "unmailable" by the US Postal Services, which called the books "obscene, lewd, lascivious and indecent." For selling copies of this book, Samuel Dodd Williamson, a Los Angeles bookseller, was arrested, jailed and fined for criminal obscenity, a case that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, who upheld the conviction.TWISTED LOVE by Mark TryonPreviously published as Sweeter Than Life and The Twisted Loves of Nym O'Sullivan. In 1953, undercover police officers in Los Angeles bought a copy of Sweeter Than Life from bookseller Eleazar Smith, charging him with obscenity. He was tried and found guilty. He appealed the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in Smith's favor. The court didn't rule on the issue of whether Tryon's book was obscene? rather they argued the ordinance made booksellers criminally liable for selling and stocking "obscene" books on their shelves, without proof the bookseller knew anything about the content of the books. The court decided this violated the due process clause of the 14th amendment.VEIL OF TORMENT by March HastingsThis lesbian pulp classic was banned, deemed "unmailable" by the U.S. Postal Services, in 1960 and rated "indecent" in the U.S.A and Canada by the National Organization for Decent Literature. Now back in print for the first time in over sixty years.