''Girls Lean Back Everywhere: The Law of Obscenity and the Assault on Genius'' is a book written by American lawyer, Edward de Grazia. It is a book chronicling the history of literary censorship in the United States and elsewhere.

The book details the history of struggles against literary censorship, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States of America. As the narrative develops, it turns increasingly to US First Amendment law. It tells the stories of various censorship struggles and cases throughout the twentieth century. The book is dedicated to Justice William Brennan.

Henry Louis Gates Henry may refer to: People and fictional characters * Henry (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters * Henry (surname) * Henry, a stage name of François-Louis Henry (1786–1855), French baritone Arts and entertainmen ...

, "Book Review: To 'Deprave and Corrupt': ''Girls Lean Back Everywhere''", 38 N.Y.L. Sch. L. Rev. 401 (1993); ''The Nation'', v.254, 898 (1992). The title comes from

Jane Heap Jane Heap (November 1, 1883 – June 18, 1964) was an American publisher and a significant figure in the development and promotion of literary modernism. Together with Margaret Anderson, her friend and business partner (who for some years was als ...

, discussed in chapter one, which is based on the biographical writings of Heap and Margaret Anderson. Heap and Anderson were American feminists and publishers, who in 1918 published the "

Nausicaa Nausicaa (; , or , ), also spelled Nausicaä or Nausikaa, is a character in Homer's ''Odyssey''. She is the daughter of King Alcinous and Arete (mythology), Queen Arete of Scheria, Phaeacia. Her name means "burner of ships" ( 'ship'; 'to burn' ...

" episode of

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...

's '' Ulysses'' in their magazine, ''

The Little Review ''The Little Review'' was an American avant-garde literary magazine founded by Margaret Anderson in Chicago's historic Fine Arts Building, published literary and art work from 1914 to May 1929. With the help of Jane Heap and Ezra Pound ...

''. Edward de Grazia
"Introduction"
'' Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal'', v.9, pp. 387–391 (July 10, 1991). Their effort to publish the work was censored as the result of a criminal prosecution instigated by John S. Sumner, Secretary of the

New York Society for the Suppression of Vice The New York Society for the Suppression of Vice (NYSSV or SSV) was an organization dedicated to supervising the morality of the public, founded in 1873. Its specific mission was to monitor compliance with state laws and work with the courts and d ...

. In response to Sumner, Heap wrote of

Mr. Joyce was not teaching early Egyptian perversions nor inventing new ones. Girls lean back everywhere, showing lace and silk stockings; wear low-cut sleeveless blouses, breathless bathing suits; men think thoughts and have emotions about these things everywhere—seldom as delicately and imaginatively as Mr. Bloom (in the "Nausicaa" episode)--and no one is corrupted.

Other chapters tell the stories of numerous publishers, authors, and works, including

Radclyffe Hall Marguerite Antonia Radclyffe-Hall (12 August 1880 – 7 October 1943), more known under her pen name Radclyffe Hall, was an English poet and author, best known for the novel ''The Well of Loneliness'', a groundbreaking work in lesbian literatur ...

's ''

The Well of Loneliness ''The Well of Loneliness'' is a lesbian novel by British author Radclyffe Hall that was first published in 1928 by Jonathan Cape. It follows the life of Stephen Gordon, an Englishwoman from an upper-class family whose " sexual inversion" (hom ...

;

D. H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English novelist, short story writer, poet, playwright, literary critic, travel writer, essayist, and painter. His modernist works reflect on modernity, social alienation ...

's ''

Lady Chatterley's Lover ''Lady Chatterley's Lover'' is the final novel by English author D. H. Lawrence, which was first published privately in 1928, in Florence, Italy, and in 1929, in Paris, France. An unexpurgated edition was not published openly in the United Ki ...

'; ''

Lolita ''Lolita'' is a 1955 novel written by Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabokov. The protagonist and narrator is a French literature professor who moves to New England and writes under the pseudonym Humbert Humbert. He details his obsession ...

'' by

Vladimir Nabokov Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov ( ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian and American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Born in Imperial Russia in 1899, Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Rus ...

;

Theodore Dreiser Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser (; August 27, 1871 – December 28, 1945) was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalism (literature), naturalist school. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despi ...

and

Émile Zola Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (, ; ; 2 April 184029 September 1902) was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of Naturalism (literature), naturalism, and an important contributor to ...

; and comedian

Lenny Bruce Leonard Alfred Schneider (October 13, 1925 – August 3, 1966), better known by his stage name Lenny Bruce, was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, and satirist. He was renowned for his open, free-wheeling, and critical style of come ...

, as well as of censor boards and organizations, such as the Boston

Watch and Ward Society A watch is a timepiece carried or worn by a person. It is designed to maintain a consistent movement despite the motions caused by the person's activities. A wristwatch is worn around the wrist, attached by a watch strap or another type of b ...

, the

National Vigilance Association The National Vigilance Association (NVA) was a British society established in 1885. Its goal was to combat prostitution, particularly forced prostitution by children. It has been described as the main social purity organization in the United Kingdom ...

, and the Cincinnati

Citizens for Community Values Center for Christian Virtue (CCV) is a Lobbying_in_the_United_States, lobbying organization focused upon implementing Christian conservative Christian Sexual_ethics#Religion, sexual morality in public policy. It was originally known as Citizens fo ...

. The final chapter covers censorship in the 1980s of photographers

Andres Serrano Andres Serrano (born August 15, 1950) is an American photographer and artist. His work, often considered transgressive art, includes photos of corpses and uses feces and bodily fluids. His '' Piss Christ'' (1987) is an amber-tinged photograph of ...

Robert Mapplethorpe Robert Michael Mapplethorpe ( ; November 4, 1946 – March 9, 1989) was an American photographer, best known for his black-and-white photographs. His work featured an array of subjects, including celebrity portraits, male and female Nude (art), n ...

, and Jock Sturges; musicians

2 Live Crew 2 Live Crew is an American hip hop group from Miami, Florida, formed in 1984. The group was originally composed of DJ Mr. Mixx (David Hobbs), Fresh Kid Ice (Christopher Wong Won), and Amazing Vee (Yuri Vielot), though its most well-known lineup ...

; and performance artists

Karen Finley Karen Finley (born 1956) is an American performance artist, musician, poet, and educator. The case, '' National Endowment for the Arts v. Finley'' (1998), argued in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, was decided against Finley and the other artist ...

and Holly Hughes. The book is organized in the form of a court transcript, effectively "put

ing Ing, ING or ing may refer to: Art and media * '' ...ing'', a 2003 Korean film * i.n.g, a Taiwanese girl group * The Ing, a race of dark creatures in the 2004 video game '' Metroid Prime 2: Echoes'' * "Ing", the first song on The Roches' 199 ...

the arts vigilantes on trial."

Publication history

The first two chapters of the book were published serially in the '' Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal''.

Significant reviews and reception

The book has been described as "monumental", "authoritative",Matt Schudel
"Edward de Grazia, lawyer and free-speech advocate, dies at 86"
(obituary), ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'', April 20, 2013 and "inspired", although sometimes "bloat d... with facts irrelevant to censorship." ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

'' described the book as a "remarkable tour de force of literary/legal sleuthing".Review
''

'', March 1, 1993.
''Kirkus Reviews''
November 15, 1991 * Jacqueline Adams, ''Library Journal'', February 1, 1992, v.117, n.2, p. 111 ("comprehensive but very readable and thought-provoking") * Frederick Bush, "Under Attack: ''Girls Lean Back Everywhere'' ...", ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'', March 22, 1993. * Cait Clarke, ''Loyola Law Review'', Summer 1992, v.38, pp. 541–556. *

, "Book Review: To 'Deprave and Corrupt': ''Girls Lean Back Everywhere''", 38 N.Y.L. Sch. L. Rev. 401 (1993); ''The Nation'', v.254, 898 (1992). * Yifat Hachamovitch, ''Cardozo Studies in Law & Literature'', Fall 1992, v. 4, pp. 289–304. *

Marjorie Heins Marjorie Heins (born 1946) is a First Amendment lawyer, writer and founder of the Free Expression Policy Project.Beth Saulnier"The Talking Cure" ''Cornell Alumni Magazine'', Sept./Oct. 2013. Education Heins received a B.A., with distinction, from ...

, "Book Review: ''Girls Lean Back Everywhere''", 1992 ''NYU Review of Law & Social Change'' 933–942. * Richard H. Pildes, "An Absolute Faith: Review of ''Girls Lean Back Everywhere''", ''

New York Times Book Review ''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...

'', July 26, 1992.
''Publishers Weekly''
March 2, 1992 ("a remarkable tour de force") * Sara Suleri, ''Yale Review'', April 1992, v.80, p. 197. * Kathleen M. Sullivan, ''New Republic'', September 28, 1992, v.207, p. 35. * John Sutherland, ''TLS'', June 26, 1992, # 4656, p. 11.* Ronald K. L. Collins, ''Christian Science Monitor'', April 6, 1992, p. 13. * Norma Basch, ''American Historical Review'', April 1993, v.98, p. 598. * Anne E. Gilson, ''Michigan Law Review'', May 1993, v.91, pp. 1166–1171. * Linda Kauffman, ''Arts & Entertainment Law Journal'', 1993, v.11, pp. 765–775. * Alma Robinson, ''San Francisco Review of Books'', Jan./Feb. 1993, v.18, p. 22. * Robert M. O'Neil, ''Cardozo Law Review'', April 1994, v.15, pp. 2329–2335. * Catherine A. MacKinnon, ''Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review'', Winter 1995, v.30, pp. 143–168. * Peter E. Kane, ''Free Speech Yearbook'', 1996, v.34, pp. 192–194. * Catherine A. MacKinnon, "Pornography Left and Right" (review of ''Sex and Reason'' by

Richard A. Posner Richard Allen Posner (; born January 11, 1939) is an American legal scholar and retired United States circuit judge who served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit from 1981 to 2017. A senior lecturer at the University of Chicag ...

and ''Girls Lean Back Everywhere'') in David M. Estlund and

Martha Nussbaum Martha Nussbaum (; Craven; born May 6, 1947) is an American philosopher and the current Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago, where she is jointly appointed in the law school and the philos ...

, eds., ''Sex, Preference, and Family: Essays on Law and Nature'', New York: Oxford University Press, 1997, pp. 102–125.

References

{{reflist 1991 non-fiction books Books about United States legal history Works about freedom of expression Books about freedom of speech Books about censorship

Contents

Publication history

Significant reviews and reception

References