Chapin City Blues

As regretful as it may be, sometimes I must renew my subscription to Newspapers.com for work, school, or personal research purposes. In this case, it was all three.  

Lately, I have been saving clippings dealing with D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover and obscenities laws—in this case, the ones that affected literature. Because I am experiencing some writer burnout, here are some articles I have clipped. 

Reading through these articles, you may recognize some striking similarities between this era of censorship and what is currently playing out in the Republican party’s Nazi-esque book bans.  

BOOK STORE MANAGER GETS 30 DAYS, FINED $500; BOOK OBSCENE

Cambridge, Mass., Dec. 20.—[Special.]—James A. De Lacey, manager of the Dunster House bookshop here, was sentenced to one month in the house of correction and fined $500 today for selling an obscene book, “Lady Chatterly’s [sic] Lover,” D.H. Lawrence.

The sentence was imposed in Superior court by Judge Fosdick who had previously found him guilty. Sentence was stayed pending an appeal and ball was reduced.

The case of James Sullivan, Mr. De Lacey’s clerk, convicted of the same offense, was placed on file.

The New England Watch and Ward society, which instituted the charges, was assailed by both the prosecution and the defense. Its agent testified that he had been gold that the store did not handle the book, but would order it for him as an accommodation, which it did.

Five Copies of Novel Are Seized in S. F.

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 11 — Five copies of “Lady Chatterly’s [sic] Lover,” an alleged erotic novel by D. H. Lawrence are held today at the Customs House, where they were seized, for return to Florence, Italy.

The books privately printed and autographed by the author, were consigned to a Fresno book dealer.

Authorities came upon them by chance.

‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’ Too Naughty For U. S. Readers; Must Go Back

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 10.— (AP) —Five copies of D. H. Lawrence’s book, “Lady Chatterley’s Lover,” privately printed in Florence, Italy, and mailed to a dealer in Fresno, have seized by customs officials as “unfit for the United States mail,” it was announced today.

The name of the Fresno dealer was withheld, officials said, and he would be permitted to send the books, valued at $19 each, back to the consignor in Italy.

GAVE FALSE NAME, AGENT CONFESSES

“Gave False Name, Agent Confesses.” Newspapers.com, The Boston Globe, December 20, 1929.

Watch and Ward Man Tells How He Secured Book.

Cambridge Men on Trail for Selling Obscene Literature

Activities of a Watch and Ward Society agent, from a viewpoint of falsehood, deception and procuring of the commission of crime, and the attitude of an official of the society in respect to those activities, figured prominently in testimony yesterday at the trial in Middlesex Criminal Court of James A. Delacey and Joseph Sullivan, manager and clerk of the Dunster House Bookshop, Cambridge, charged with selling “a book containing obscene, indecent, or impure language, or manifestly tending to corrupt the morals of youth.”

The defendants were before the Superior Court on appeal form the lower court, where both were convicted, and Delacey was sentenced to four months in the House of Correction and an $800 fine, while Sullivan as given two weeks in the House of Correction and a $200 fine. The book in question is D. W. [sic] Lawrence’s “Lady Chatterly’s [sic] Lover.”