Samuel Roth (1893 - July 3rd, 1974) was an American publisher and writer. He was the plaintiff in the landmark 1957 case '' Roth v. United States'', in which the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...

redefined the constitutional test for determining which constitutes

obscene An obscenity is any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time. It is derived from the Latin , , "boding ill; disgusting; indecent", of uncertain etymology. Generally, the term can be used to indicate strong moral ...

material unprotected by the

First Amendment First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

. It became a template for the liberalizing

decisions in the 1960s. Roth spent nine years in jail on state and federal obscenity convictions, spending eight years in Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary.

Background

Roth, a Jew, was born in 1893 in Nuszcze, then Galicia, now in

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

. His Hebrew name was "Mshilliam" (Meshulam). The family emigrated to the

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Historically, it w ...

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

when he was 4 in 1897. He started working at age 8 as an egg chandler, at 10 as a newsboy, and at 14 as a baker. By the age of 16, he was working for the '' New York Globe'' as a Lower East Side correspondent. When the paper folded, Roth became

homeless Homelessness, also known as houselessness or being unhoused or unsheltered, is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and functional housing. It includes living on the streets, moving between temporary accommodation with family or friends, liv ...

but continued writing and publishing and attended

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

for a year on

scholarship A scholarship is a form of Student financial aid, financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, Multiculturalism, diversity and inclusion, athleti ...

Career

Successes (1920s)

Roth's early poetry was praised by

Edwin Arlington Robinson Edwin Arlington Robinson (December 22, 1869 – April 6, 1935) was an American poet and playwright. Robinson won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry on three occasions and was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature four times. Early life Robins ...

, Louis Untermeyer, Maurice Samuel, and

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an List of poets from the United States, American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Ita ...

, among others. It appeared in several respected magazines, such as '' The Maccabean'' and '' The Hebrew Standard'', and in anthologies. His sequence of 18 sonnets, "Nustscha" (composed c. 1915-18) is an elegy to his hometown. His "Sonnets on Sinai" in ''The

Menorah Journal ''The Menorah Journal'' (1915–1962) was a Jewish-American magazine, founded in New York City. Some have called it "the leading English-language Jewish intellectual and literary journal of its era." The journal lasted from 1915 until ...

'' depict the speaker of the poems planning to visit Sinai in order to return the

Ten Commandments The Ten Commandments (), or the Decalogue (from Latin , from Ancient Greek , ), are religious and ethical directives, structured as a covenant document, that, according to the Hebrew Bible, were given by YHWH to Moses. The text of the Ten ...

to God, after they have failed to obey God's covenant. After

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Roth founded a bookshop. In 1921, he traveled to London to interview European writers with the hope of selling his essays to magazines. During this time, he wrote two books on the state of the "two worlds" (Europe and America) and the situation of Jews on both continents. ''Europe: A Book for America'' (Boni & Liveright, 1919) is a lengthy, prophetic poem on the decay of Europe and the promise of America. ''Now and Forever'' (McBride, 1925) is an imaginary "conversation" between Roth and British writer

Israel Zangwill Israel Zangwill (21 January 18641 August 1926) was a British author at the forefront of Zionism during the 19th century, and was a close associate of Theodor Herzl. He later rejected the search for a Jewish homeland in Palestine and became the ...

on the merits of

Diaspora A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of birth, place of origin. The word is used in reference to people who identify with a specific geographic location, but currently resi ...

and

Zionism Zionism is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in History of Europe#From revolution to imperialism (1789–1914), Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the ...

for the Jewish people. Zangwill praised Roth for his "poetry and pugnacity." In the mid-1920s, with money earned by establishing a school for teaching immigrants English, Roth founded four literary magazines. These included ''Beau'', a forerunner of ''

Esquire Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title. In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentleman ...

'' and perhaps the first American "

men's magazine This is a list of men's magazines from around the world. These are magazines (periodical print publications) that have been published primarily for a readership of men. The list has been split into subcategories according to the target audienc ...

.” The most important products in his short-lived magazine empire were the quarterly ''Two Worlds'' and ''Two Worlds Monthly''. He chose to publish (in some cases, without permission) some sexually explicit, contemporary authors, including (in ''Two Worlds Monthly''), segments 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''. Joyce won an injunction to stop Roth from printing these expurgated installments. Joyce's publisher

Sylvia Beach Sylvia Beach (14 March 1887 – 5 October 1962), born Nancy Woodbridge Beach, was an American-born bookseller and publisher who lived most of her life in Paris, where she was one of the leading expatriate figures between World War I and World W ...

, at the writer's urging, engineered an international protest in 1927 against Roth, although the nature of

copyright law A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive legal right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, e ...

at the time made the charge of piracy debatable. Due to the well-organized protest of 167 authors against him, Roth became an international literary pariah, and

Random House Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...

won its case to "de-censor" ''Ulysses'' in 1934. Roth soon after published pirated editions of ''

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 ...

'', most likely the first American to do so. After a raid on his

Fifth Avenue Fifth Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan in New York City. The avenue runs south from 143rd Street (Manhattan), West 143rd Street in Harlem to Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. The se ...

warehouse by 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 1929, Roth spent over a year in prison on Welfare Island, and in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, for distributing material deemed obscene. Written under the pressures of bankruptcy, he published ''Jews Must Live'', described by some critics as an example of Jewish self-hatred.

Jail (1930s)

Roth did well with his William Faro imprint in the early 1930s. His expurgated version of ''Lady Chatterley's Lover'' was a big seller, as were reprints of classic erotica (especially '' Mirbeau's Diary of a Chambermaid''), from which books' explicit sex was excised. In 1931, Roth published an exposé of

Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was the 31st president of the United States, serving from 1929 to 1933. A wealthy mining engineer before his presidency, Hoover led the wartime Commission for Relief in Belgium and ...

(''The Strange Career of Mr. Hoover Under Two Flags'') which sold extremely well. However, he began to run afoul of the law as early as October 1929, when Roth, his brother Max Roth, and Henry Zolinsky (later known as Henry Zolan, an Objectivist poet who had edited ''The Lavender'' student poetry magazine at the

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a Public university, public research university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York ...

from 1923 to 1926) were arrested at a warehouse owned by the Golden Hind Press in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, a distribution point near New York City. After 1933, due to a lack of money, Roth began distributing strictly banned pornography. He received illustrated books and pamphlets and sometimes left them in subway lockers for trusted customers. The

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

traced the works back to Roth, who therefore spent 1936 to 1939 in Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary. He also spent the years 1957 to 1961 there due to his conviction for distributing what was considered obscene and pandering to prurience in his advertisements. Overall, his incarcerations included: * 1928: 3 months in New York "workhouse" for possessing indecent materials with intent to sell * 1929: 6 months imprisonment in "Detention Headquarters, NYC" for violation of parole: occurred after NY Society for the Suppression of Vice raided Roth's

warehouse and found copies of ''Lady Chatterley's Lover'', ''Ulysses'', ''Fanny Hill'', other titles and pictures * 1930: 2 months in

Moyamensing Prison Moyamensing Prison was a prison in the South Philadelphia neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was designed by Thomas Ustick Walter. Its cornerstone was laid on April 2, 1832; it opened on October 19, 1835, was in use until 1963, and w ...

, remanded after serving time in New York for selling obscene books (including ''Ulysses'') in Philadelphia * 1934: $100 fine (otherwise 20 days in jail) * 1936-1939: incarceration at Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary * 1957-1961: incarceration at Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary There were several other cases where the charge was dismissed. In 1954, police raided the office of the Seven Sirens Press on

Lafayette Street Lafayette Street ( ) is a major north–south street in Lower Manhattan, New York City. It originates at the intersection of Reade Street and Centre Street, one block north of Chambers Street. The one-way street then successively runs throu ...

as well as Roth's apartment on the upper West Side, led by an assistant District Attorney. All books, correspondence, and furniture were removed from the office. Roth attempted to leave the apartment to make a telephone call and an altercation with a police officer occurred. After Roth promised not to sue, the case was dismissed due to vagueness of the search warrant and illegal methods of search and seizure.

Hiss Case connections (1940s)

In the mid-1920s, Roth received poems by

Whittaker Chambers Whittaker Chambers (born Jay Vivian Chambers; April 1, 1901 – July 9, 1961) was an American writer and intelligence agent. After early years as a Communist Party member (1925) and Soviet spy (1932–1938), he defected from the Soviet u ...

(common friend of Henry Zolinsky and Louis Zukofsky) in his magazine ''Two Worlds Quarterly''. During the 1940s, Roth had David George Plotkin write a number of books for him. In 1946, Plotkin published ''The Plot Against America'', an exposé of U.S. Senator Burton K. Wheeler. Though Roth did not publish the book, an incensed Wheeler asked the FBI to investigate, which shared Plotkin's file with the

House Un-American Activities Committee The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative United States Congressional committee, committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 19 ...

(HUAC). In the process, the government made a connection between Plotkin and Roth. In 1948, Roth wrote one of the attorneys representing

Alger Hiss Alger Hiss (November 11, 1904 – November 15, 1996) was an American government official who was accused of espionage in 1948 for the Soviet Union in the 1930s. The statute of limitations had expired for espionage, but he was convicted of perjur ...

and offered to testify before HUAC that

had written poems for Roth during the 1920s under the alias "George Crosley"–the only person aside from Hiss himself ever willing to testify such. The Hiss defense team chose not to use Roth's deposition. (One of Roth's daughters later claimed that Roth had offered this testimony at least partly because of his "hatred for Communism and Communists.") During ''United States v. Alger Hiss'' (1949), the Hiss defense team used "Tandaradei," an erotic poem of Chambers' that Roth had published in June 1926, to imply that Chambers was homosexual.

Mail order (1940s)

After 1940, Roth conducted most of his business via mail order. Using a combination of literary reprints, celebrity worship, criminal exploits, and political exposes, all touted as daringly salacious, he brought the

Times Square Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and Neighborhoods in New York City, neighborhood in the Midtown Manhattan section of New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway (Manhattan), ...

entertainment carnival to every corner of America. Since the postal inspectors periodically declared "unmailable" letters to and from the business names he used, he changed those frequently. "Dame Post Office," as he referred to the Post Office Department, had to set up a special unit solely for his enterprises. By the time he re-entered Lewisburg as a result of his conviction in the 1957 case '' Roth v. United States'', he had devised over 60 names for his "presses" or "book services." During this time, he published '' My Sister and I'' (1953), supposedly written by

Friedrich Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher. He began his career as a classical philology, classical philologist, turning to philosophy early in his academic career. In 1869, aged 24, Nietzsche bec ...

when he was in a mental hospital near the end of his life. Another book was ghost-written by scholar of erotica Gershon Legman: ''The Sexual Conduct of Men and Women'' (1947). ''My Life and Loves in Greenwich Village'' (1955) was allegedly written by Maxwell Bodenheim, whom Roth employed during his last years. One of Roth's strangest publications was an exploitation of

Marilyn Monroe Marilyn Monroe ( ; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; June 1, 1926 August 4, 1962) was an American actress and model. Known for playing comic "Blonde stereotype#Blonde bombshell, blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex ...

's suicide, ''Violations of the Child Marilyn Monroe'' by "Her Psychiatrist Friend" (1962). Legman and his first wife also did a translation of

Alfred Jarry Alfred Jarry (; ; 8 September 1873 – 1 November 1907) was a French Artistic symbol, symbolist writer who is best known for his play ''Ubu Roi'' (1896)'','' often cited as a forerunner of the Dada, Surrealism, Surrealist, and Futurism, Futurist ...

's '' Ubu Roi'', published under the title ''King Turd'' in 1953. George Sylvester Viereck's ''Men into Beasts'' (1955) was an account of his years in federal prison during World War II. Viereck was apparently a German agent. He was one of the anti-Semitic writers Roth befriended ( Fritz Duquesne was another), although Roth continued to be an

orthodox Jew Orthodox Judaism is a collective term for the traditionalist branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as literally revealed by God on Mount Sinai and faithfully tran ...

throughout his life. Milton Hindus' fine study of Louis-Ferdinand Celine, ''The Crippled Giant'', appeared in 1950; playwright Arthur Sainer's ''The Sleepwalker and the Assassin: A View of the Contemporary Theatre'' in 1964 (Roth continued publishing after his last stint in federal prison). Roth self-published his own works during the 1940s and 50s, including a novel about a naïve, virginal Italian immigrant discovering the plight of the working class in America, ''Bumarap'' (1947). While in prison for the last time, he wrote a fictionalized version of the ministry and crucifixion of Jesus, ''My Friend Yeshua'' (1961). The narrator, clearly a version of Roth, is given the mission of reconciling the Jewish and Christian peoples in the 20th century, a frequent theme in the 19th and earlier part of the 20th century.

''Roth v. United States'' (1957)

''Roth v. United States'', , along with its companion case ''Alberts v. California'', was a 1957

landmark case Landmark court decisions, in present-day common law legal systems, establish precedents that determine a significant new legal principle or concept, or otherwise substantially affect the interpretation of existing law. "Leading case" is commonly u ...

before the

, which redefined the Constitutional test for determining what constitutes obscene material unprotected by the

Personal life and death

Roth may have been bisexual. He married Pauline Roth on May 18, 1917. They had three children together. During his career he used several aliases, including "Norman Lockridge" and "David Zorn." Roth died age 79 on July 3, 1974, of complications from

diabetes Diabetes mellitus, commonly known as diabetes, is a group of common endocrine diseases characterized by sustained high blood sugar levels. Diabetes is due to either the pancreas not producing enough of the hormone insulin, or the cells of th ...

Legacy

Roth fought censorship laws. However, because he had no money or status and because of international protest, he was ignored by established writers and outbid by wealthier, better-connected publishers (

Alfred A. Knopf Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Blanche Knopf and Alfred A. Knopf Sr. in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers ...

, Thomas Seltzer,

Bennett Cerf Bennett Alfred Cerf (May 25, 1898 – August 27, 1971) was an American writer, publisher, and co-founder of the American publishing firm Random House. Cerf was also known for his own compilations of jokes and puns, for regular personal appearanc ...

, and Horace Liveright). Roth did not ask for permission from some of the most famous writers he published not only in his underground publications but also in his trade imprint, William Faro, Inc.

Works

Books: *
Broomstick Brigade
' (New York: Bloch Publishing, 1914) * "First Offering: A Book of Sonnets and Lyrics" * '' Europe: A Book for America'' (New York: Boni and Liveright, 1919) * ''Now and Forever: A Conversation with Mr. Israel Zangwill on the Jew and the Future'', 1925 * ''Stone Walls Do Not: The Chronicle of a Captivity'', 1930 * ''Lady Chatterley's Husbands: An Anonymous Sequel to the Celebrated Novel, Lady Chatterley's Lover'' (New York: William Faro, 1931) * ''Lady Chatterley's Lover: A Dramatization of His Version of D.H. Lawrence's Novel'' (New York: William Faro, 1931) * ''The Private Life of Frank Harris'' (New York: William Faro, 1931) * ''Songs Out of Season'' (New York: William Faro, 1932) *
Jews Must Live: An Account of the Persecution of the World by Israel on All the Frontiers of Civilization
' (New York: The Golden Hind Press, 1934) * ''Dear Richard: A Letter to My Son in the Fighting Forces of the United States'' (New York: Wisdom House, 1942) * ''Peep-Hole of the Present: An Inquiry into the Substance of Appearance'' (New York: Philosophical Book-Club, 1945) * ''Bumarap: The Story of a Male Virgin'' (New York: Arrowhead Books, 1947) * ''Apotheosis: The Nazarene in Our World'' (New York: Bridgehead Books, 1957) * ''My Friend Yeshua'' (New York: Bridgehead Books, 1961) Editing: * '' New Songs of Zion: A Zionist Anthology'' (New York: Judean Press, 1914) Magazines edited: * ''Two Worlds Monthly; Devoted to the Increase of the Gaiety of Nations'' (New York: Two Worlds Publishing, 1926-????) * ''Two Worlds: A Literary Quarterly Devoted to the Increase of the Gaiety of Nations'', 1925 * ''Good Times: A Revue of the World of Pleasure'', 1954-1956 Poems edited: * "Yahrzeit" (poem), ''The Nation'' (May 8, 1920) Other: * "A Letter to Mr. J. C. Squire," ''The Nation'' (November 10, 1920)

References

External links

Samuel Roth Papers
at the Rare Book & Manuscript Library at

"Scandalous Reputations: Serializing Ulysses in Two Worlds Monthly"
Amanda Sigler,
Berfrois
', 16 June 2011
"Two Worlds Monthly Archive at the Modernist Versions Project"
at The

University of Victoria The University of Victoria (UVic) is a public research university located in the municipalities of Oak Bay, British Columbia, Oak Bay and Saanich, British Columbia, Canada. Established in 1903 as Victoria College, British Columbia, Victoria Col ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Roth, Samuel 1893 births 1974 deaths American publishers (people) Jewish American non-fiction writers Jewish American poets American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent American male poets People convicted of obscenity Columbia University people American businesspeople convicted of crimes 20th-century American poets 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers American male non-fiction writers American anti-communists American prisoners and detainees 20th-century American Jews Emigrants from Austria-Hungary to the United States Prisoners and detainees of the United States federal government Prisoners and detainees of New York (state) Immigrants to the United States