Throughout 1961, Grove Press, the book’s publisher, had to mount about sixty lawsuits to protect the book, with the ACLU on its side. Tropic of Cancer was still officially labeled “obscene”, and Chicago police even intimidated bookstores that chose to carry the book. Despite the ruling, the anti-Miller faction did not go away without a fight. The ban was not lifted until 1961, when Elmer Gertz, a lawyer who would become one of Miller’s close friends, defended the publication of Tropic of Cancer in Illinois – and won. The government was so incensed that it extended the ban to include all of Miller’s subsequent works. The argument was that Miller described his sexual exploits in too explicit a manner, and that the book was sexually immoral. Was this book pornography, or was it a work of literature?įour years after the book’s initial release, Tropic of Cancer was banned by the United States government. Some writers, including Anais Nin, proclaimed it a work of genius, while others were baffled critics began to bicker about its flaws and merits, and its explicit nature became a subject of intense debate. Few other novels of the century have created as much of a stir. Tropic of Cancer was first published in Paris in 1934.
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