Licentious Gotham: Erotic Publishing and its Prosecution in.. by Dennis, Donna - 2009

2009. Dennis, Donna. Licentious Gotham: Erotic Publishing and its Prosecution in Nineteenth-Century New York. Cambridge, [Mass.]: Harvard University Press, 2009. vii, 386 pp. Hardcover in near-fine dust jacket. $20. * Contents: "Beware of print and fancy goods stores"; Flash weeklies; Fancy books and racy pamphlets; The publishers; Venus in the mail; The triumph of pornography; The Comstock Act; New frontiers. "In nineteenth-century New York, the business of erotic publishing and legal attacks on obscenity developed in tandem, with each activity shaping and even promoting the pursuit of the other. Obscenity prohibitions, rather than curbing salacious publications, inspired innovative new styles of forbidden literature - such as works highlighting expressions of passion and pleasure by middle-class American women. Obscenity prosecutions also spurred purveyors of lewd materials to devise novel schemes to evade local censorship by advertising and distributing their products through the mail. This subterfuge in turn triggered far-reaching transformations in strategies for policing obscenity." (Publisher's description -Jacket).