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D.H. Lawrence had been dead 30 years when his book Lady Chatterley’s Lover launched a shitstorm of an obscenity trial in his homeland, creating a watershed moment for the liberalization of publishing in England regarding writing about fucking, including use of the word “fuck” to describe said fucking.
--On This Day in History, Shit Went Down: November 2, 1960--
David Herbert Lawrence wrote some things that vexed some people and he said fuck you England and exiled himself to mainland Europe after World War I ended. In 1928, when he was 42, he privately published Lady Chatterley in Italy, and the following year it was published in France. Because Italians and French were okay with artistic depictions of fucking, it didn’t stir up much controversy.
Long story short: She’s a young woman married to an upper-class man who was paralyzed in the Great War. He can’t perform physically and ignores her emotionally, so she says fuck this and fucks the gamekeeper. Plus, some other stuff happens, including analysis of class divisions. Anyway, Lawrence died from tuberculosis two years after its first publication. Drag.
A censored version of the book was published in England two years after his death, but people wanted the rest of it, because important. And sexy. It would take another 28 years, but Penguin had the guts to publish the uncensored version in 1960, and then was promptly put on trial under the 1959 Obscene Publications Act.
One of the issues with the book, besides the sex scenes, was how often the word “fuck” appeared in it. I guess back then I would have been fucked for the way I write. Anyway, the Act had an escape clause for conviction if the publisher could prove the work had literary merit. And that’s what the trial focused on: the merit of the book as a work of literature. After a diverse array of experts testified, Penguin was found not guilty on November 2, 1960.
The case was heavily publicized, and Penguin quickly sold three million copies of the book because it turns out Brits have dirty minds. Alas, English lawmakers still have twisted undergarments regarding coverage of what’s under those garments. As an example, in 2014 the country banned the display of female ejaculation in porn, but showing male ejaculation is fine. Go figure.
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