The Censor's Library
Uncovering the Lost History of Australia's Banned Books
An absorbing exposé of the books we couldn't read, didn't read, didn't know about, and the reasons why. When Nicole Moore discovered the secret 'censor's library' in the National Archives - 793 boxes of books prohibited from the 1920s to the 1980s - so began a journey that resulted in this, the first comprehensive examination of Australian book censorship. For much of the twentieth century, Australia banned more books and more serious books than most other English-speaking or Western countries, from the Kama Sutra through to Huxley's Brave New World and Joyce's Ulysses. Federal publications censorship was a largely secret affair and deliberately kept from the knowledge of the Australian public until the scandals and protests of late last century. Censorship continues to attract heated debate, from the Henson affair to the national internet feed. Combining rigorous scholarship with the narrative tension of a thriller, The Censors Library is a provocative account of this scandalous history. Book jacket.
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“On 23 March 1948, Robert Close was sat on a wooden bench in the Victorian Criminal Court and listened to his novel being read aloud. Copies had been distributed to the Jury and the Crown Prosecutor, Leo Little KC, stood in the middle of the room and read Love Me Sailor to the court from beginning to end. Close and his publisher Ted Harris of Georgian House, had been charged with a criminal offense: ‘that they did, on or about the 16th of February 1945 publish said book, being one containing obscene matter'. “
When reading this chapter, called Literature in Handcuffs, I was struck by the dates. At this point the world had witnessed the deaths of maybe 60 million a short few years previously, a genuinely obscene waste of lives, so what do we have here in Australia at this time? A high profile criminal case based on a book being supposedly obscene. Now with a title like that one would think it was maybe about homosexuality that being one of the obsessions of the censors at the time in their never ending attempt to keep the country white and orthodox? The answer is no. It was a book about an English lady who ends up on a merchant ship and is such an attractive lady that the very fabric of the ship's all male crew is sent into a spiral of sexual psychosis that affects the mental wellbeing of the crew and the lady.
“The prosecutions' main objection to Love Me Sailor was, as Close anticipated, its sailors language – most intensely the word ‘rutting' as too obvious a substitute for the fucking”
In 1948 the Australian public was shielded from the F word but had no issue with racist language in its literature, I've read this myself, nor vile political policy such as the White Australia Policy nor its treatment of the indigenous population that was treated under law as flora and fauna and had its children stolen en masse. Close served 10 days in jail and departed Australia on release, not to return for 25 years.
Author Nicole Moore has done some very good and deep research into banned books in Australia.
Moore has presented a history of what is a complicated beast of customs control through to state and federal laws and regulations that was only really overcome with the advent of progressive change via conservative minister for Customs Don Chipp in the 1960's and with the change to a Labor government in the early 70's who stopped Customs from having any input at all on the banning of books. This still did not stop some states banning books, Queensland a stand out with American Psycho not for the eyes of the likes of me until recent times, but nationally there was definitely a more relaxed attitude as to what adults could read.
There is an excellent bibliography and the endnotes are extensive. I have found this a very easy to read history and spent my time searching out little known titles that were on the end of the censors ban that today would hardly make a stir. As to the more famous banned books the list is rather startling at times. A Brave New World through to Keep the Aspidistra Flying are among many. The quantity of works discussing sex education, birth control for example, was enormous. The title comes from Moore's research in the national archives where she found about 12,000 titles all wrapped up and stored in 793 boxes. I would imagine some of these just might be worth a little to collectors of rarities.
Highly recommended to anyone with an interest in censorship.
