The Trials of Portnoy: How Penguin Brought Down Australia's Censorship System

by Patrick Mullins

Fifty years after the event, here is the first full account of an audacious publishing decision that — with the help of booksellers and readers around the country — forced the end of literary censorship in Australia.

For more than seventy years, a succession of politicians, judges, and government officials in Australia worked in the shadows to enforce one of the most pervasive and conservative regimes of censorship in the world. The goal was simple: to keep Australia free of the moral contamination of impure literature. Under the censorship regime, books that might damage the morals of the Australian public were banned, seized, and burned; bookstores were raided; publishers were fined; and writers were charged and even jailed. But in the 1970s, that all changed.

In 1970, in great secrecy and at considerable risk, Penguin Books Australia resolved to publish Portnoy’s Complaint — Philip Roth’s frank, funny, and profane bestseller about a boy hung up about his mother and his penis. In doing so, Penguin spurred a direct confrontation with the censorship authorities, which culminated in criminal charges, police raids, and an unprecedented series of court trials across the country.

Sweeping from the cabinet room to the courtroom, The Trials of Portnoy draws on archival records and new interviews to show how Penguin and a band of writers, booksellers, academics, and lawyers determinedly sought for Australians the freedom to read what they wished — and how, in defeating the forces arrayed before them, they reshaped Australian literature and culture forever.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Australia

329 pages, Paperback

Published June 2, 2020

About the author

Patrick Mullins is a Canberra-based writer.

He has a PhD in writing from the University of Canberra. Tiberius with a Telephone, his first book, won the 2020 NSW Premier's Non-Fiction Award and the 2020 National Biography Award.

His second,The Trials of Portnoy, won a 2021 Canberra Critics' Circle Award and was shortlisted for the 2021 ACT Book of the Year and 2021 NSW Premier's Non-Fiction Award.

He writes for a range of magazines and periodicals.

Reviews

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a gem of a history book. While the big issues around censorship and Australia's changing cultural mores are ever-present, Mullins sensibly decides to lean into the sheer hilarious absurdity of the situation, and the book is one of the funniest things I've read in a long time. Turn's out Australia's censorship laws were, among other things, hilariously inept. The book is chock full of images like jury rooms full of people reading Portney's Complaint because it was illegal to do it at home; lawyers on both sides losing it over double entendres, police trying to answer questions about their own moral corruption after reading the book. The extravagant Bob Gould makes a cameo disguising his books as beer; Hobartian bookseller Ian Pearce faces charges in the world's most diffident entrapment; over West, the CPA make a killing selling the book via their street seller network: it's just all gold, and Mullins is a much better storyteller than me. At a broader level, Australia's convoluted state/federal system creates an embarrassing nightmare of simultaneous trials for the Commonwealth.
More seriously, while I have no intention of reading Roth again, the book put Portney's Complaint into some perspective. Dorothy Hewett's impassioned comments about how the book explained dysfunctional masculinity in ways that exposed misogyny were interesting (and did make me wonder what she would make in our world of deluged unsolicited dick pics - I think we are all clear by now!). Her point that it broke space for all to talk about sex more so. It also evokes a world when a book was a portal to ideas that were hard to come by - nostalgia for the precious object. We live in such a rich information world - I carry 900 books on my phone, reads dozens of articles from different publications every day. Trials of Portney takes you back to a day when a simple paperback was an event, and books were re-read and discussed. I don't want to go back, but it is easier in some ways to understand the impact of literature when you contemplate a world when a single book is worth arrest for.

[Krystelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

An utter delight-however, my one word of warning is that if you’re going to get arrested, maybe don’t do it over a Philip Roth book?

I really enjoyed this. Providing an insight into the utterly comedic absurdity of the pathetic censorship laws that plagued Australia, this book emphasises the wild stupidity of a government inept in the face of art. There’s so much here to be learnt. I love any book that introduces Whitlam as the non-political straight talker that he was, and makes me feel like one of the heroes has walked into the piece.

The unfathomability of such an era makes itself apparent to me- to rely so heavily on bizarre rules about what the government has decided a reasonable thing for people to read is difficult for me, and you damn well know I would be all over banned books in the day like a rash. I love reading this sort of stuff because it reinforces this should never occur again- and there’s so much to be learnt!

[Win · Rating 5 out of 5]

You would think a book about the censorship of books in Australia in the 60’s-70’s & the court cases that followed could be a bit dry. Not the case with this book. It’s a fantastic read from start to finish. It feels quite timely. Ultra conservative Big Brother decides he knows best what we should or shouldn’t have been reading back then. Let’s hope we never go down that track again.

[Scribe Publications]

Anyone interested in Australian history, politics and books generally will find much food for thought in this entertaining, well-researched and carefully written history.
Julia Taylor, Books+Publishing

The finely detailed story of the legal fight in Australia against the censorship of Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint.
Sean O’Beirne, The Monthly

Mullins’s compelling account of these last days of the old censorship regime skilfully draws on a rich range of sources, including interviews with many of the key figures involved. He gives an insight not just into how the system operated and the politics involved, but also into a significant cultural moment in Australia.
Amanda Laugesen, Inside Story

Mullins has applied his skills in thorough research, forensic examination of evidence and a light wit to the numerous trials in different States which, in 1970-71, determined whether sales of Portnoy’s Complaint should be permitted in Australia.
Mark Thomas, The Canberra Times

[A] literary detective story with a difference.
Craig Munro, The Australian

The Trials of Portnoy, tells the true story of how Portnoy’s Complaint was declared illegal throughout the Commonwealth, and how, eventually, it became a book we were allowed to own and read … The real treat of The Trials of Portnoy though, is to see how many people were willing to stand up in court and make the always difficult argument for literature.
Sean O’Beirne, The Monthly

The Trials of Portnoy is full of the juice and drama and hilarity of the courtroom … Patrick Mullins has written an utterly diverting account of a bit of ancient Australian literary history … superb.
Peter Craven, The Saturday Paper

Patrick Mullins’ latest effort provides the most detailed account yet of this embarrassing moment in our inglorious history.
Chris Dite, Readings

[A] wonderful account of how a group of brave publishers, booksellers and academics brought down Australia’s ridiculous censorship regime.
Barry Reynolds, Herald Sun

Mullins draws on his skills as an academic and writer to give an extraordinary rundown on these trials … [The Trials of Portnoy] could well become the ultimate academic guide to the changes to censorship in Australia.
Fiona Myers, The Weekly Times

An illuminating tale about book censorship in Australia … Publishers and bookstores are the heroes in this … entertaining account of a ‘hard-won’ battle.
Kirkus Reviews

Patrick Mullins gives us a useful litany of the blow by blow progress of those cases that came to court.
Sue Rabbitt Roff, Pearls and Irritations

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

One word keeps coming to mind in light of reading The Trials of Portnoy: wowsers. Turns out, Australians are rather prudish, with the number of books that were banned up until the 70s. Patrick Mullins charts the censorship toppling case, where Penguin Australia published Portnoy's Complaint, despite its banned status in Australia.

The famous quote: "Print and be damned" comes to mind, when Penguin and the booksellers who stock the Philip Roth novel, are taken to court by multiple governments. This book is chortlingly amusing and terrifying at the same time; this terrifying amusement extends to the police raids on bookstores to remove Portnoy's Complaint. I couldn't help but think, don't they have anything better to do?

Added to this, there's a cast of colourful characters, particularly the droll bookshop owners who flout the laws in order to promote literature. Reading this today, I can't imagine police cracking down on the local Readings, but Penguin have done us all a great service by taking censorship to task, not only by defending Portnoy's Complaint but Lady Chatterley's Lover. While the book gets a little bogged down in details of the multiple trials, it is vital reading for Australian authors.

[Fiona · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s like the Aussie version of “yes, prime minister” but with a lot more euphemistic jokes about masturbation and literary merit made by lawyers in court in the 1970’s

[Benjamin · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolute bloody ripper of a history book. Recommended to all who are interested in Australian politics, against censorship and for literature, liberty and righteous filth.

[Dennis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was an outstanding book and read it right through with my only interruptions being to sleep and eat. I lived through the great Australian censoring saga in the 1960s and 70s and believe that it was one of the factors that originally drove to me to leave Australia behind and travel to Europe. It was a totally stupid episode in our history as Australian politicians pontificated on literature and even on psychiatry while they considered what made people morally corrupted. This book is the account of those days and the court cases, instigated by Penguin in support of their Australian printing of 'Portnoy's Complaint', which was banned in every state (except South Australia) and also the Australian Customs which enthusiastically banned imports. I ran foul of the Australian Customs in 1964 when we returned from Europe as they had the right to go through the baggage of arriving passengers and remove any items they considered to be offensive. I lost quite a number of books, Playboy magazines, Windmill Theatre programs and the Customs Officials were very rude when I questioned their expertise in such matters. They also smashed some beautiful fine Bohemian glassware that my wife had carefully packed in blankets for protection. I am still steaming at the stupidity of Customs and the Australian and State Governments of that time, so thank thank goodness it is now behind us. Not withstanding the subject, the book is a beauty.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating look at how Penguin challenged, and end ended, literary censorship in Australia in the 1970s. Penguin secretly published and distributed Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth as a catalyst to put literary censorship on trial.

Chapters 2-4 are essentially a brief history of censorship in Australian publishing. Of note is the fact that at one point the Minister for Trade and Customs had authority under the Customs Act to ban by proclamation any work he deemed to be obscene, indecent or blasphemous. This list of banned or restricted works was kept secret!

The bulk of the book focuses on the decision to challenge the system and the various trials that resulted in different Australian States, all of which challenged what it means for a work to have ‘literary merit’ and what is ‘obscenity’. A really interesting read about a fascinating moment in Australian history.

[Edmund Chattoe-Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is very much a "what it says on the tin" book, giving a clear and engaging narrative about the various Australian trials of Portnoy's Complaint in regard to obscenity and how Penguin Books Australia was instrumental in challenging the relevant laws. Along the way it gives a good feeling for the politics and culture of Australia over the corresponding time period. Its only drawback is that, rather than concluding, it really just stops! It is quite a specialised story but anyone who has a relevant interest (censorship, literature, Australian culture) will find it well worth a read and it stands up on its own as an entertaining book.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting read about how the archaic Australian censorship rules were challenged. It is well researched, and for the most part, an engaging read. However, reading the summary of the various court cases gets a bit dry after a while. These involved some well-known people including a young David Marr (whose original career was in the law), and William Deane (later to be Australia's Governor General).

[Benson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Humorous, straight to the point, and quite interesting. For those interested on Australian society pre-Whitlam and Liberal/Conservative dominated society. It's a really insight to how many fingers were in pies of high positions judging what and what could not be read or deemed 'moral' and 'worthy' of print. To some it might be a stretch, but, I do hope we never return to times like this or anything similar. Otherwise we'll become a backwater, this time without Mummy Britain's tit.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

How the Australian censorship system was destroyed by a concerted campaign launched by Penguin Books Australia involving the secret publication and distribution of a banned book (Portnoy's Complaint) and the enthusiastic collaboration of several booksellers across the country who risked fines and imprisonment.
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[Benjamin Farr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. What an incredible book about how Australia's draconian censorship system was effectively dismantled by the (illegal) publishing and (illegal) selling of Portnoy's Complaint.

[Melita · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this account of the end of Australia's formal literary censorship system.

[Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

An engrossing, amusing experience. Meticulously researched, comprehensively referenced. Brought back memories of the time when Australia was on the cusp of exciting, radical changes in attitudes, literature, and understandings of the role of government.