Girls Lean Back Everywhere: The Law of Obscenity and the Assault on Genius

by Edward De Grazia

De Grazia, the attorney who argued and won the Tropic of Cancer case before the Supreme Court, offers a narrative history of censorship—from the jailing of Emile Zola's English publisher through the suppression of Joyce's Ulysses , down to recent attempts to obstruct works by Miller, Burroughs, Nabokov, and Mapplethorpe.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Law, History, Feminism

832 pages, Paperback

First published March 17, 1992

Reviews

[Corinne · Rating 5 out of 5]

While this is an excellent book on the history of free speech and literary censorship, I was very troubled by the fact that nowhere in this lengthy publication were there any citations to or discussions of the psychological ramifications of pornography, or the psychological make-up of pedophiles. Omitting that entire segment of study and societal impact in an otherwise thorough discussion of this subject is surprising -- and troubling.

[Tracey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Life's too short to read stuff you don't like.... which is why I finally abandoned this book.

I got thru Chapter 15 (page 294) by strength of will. It just didn't work for me - I'm not that interested in law -- and it goes into what I considered excruciating detail about the cases. So back to the library it went.

[Kurt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I took a first amendment class with Prof. De Grazia at Cardozo Law and that was the best class I've ever taken. This was the text book and I highly recommend it. De Grazia was the attorney who got Henry Miller and William Burroughs published here. He's a genius. I got an A+ in that class by the way - lol.

[Bill Peschel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full of fascinating information about obscenity laws, pointing out how they're inconsistently (and sometimes illegally) applied, and how authors and publishers fought back and sometimes lost. Well worth the time to read.

[Susanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't right now. I was fascinated, I do remember that.

[Catherine Siemann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reread.

[Mauoijenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

You just have to read this... you'll understand!!