I’ve looked into some past threads, but couldn’t really find what I was looking for. I’m looking for books that are set and/or written in those times (but preferably something post-WW2) and include things that would be deemed controversial for the public back then, e.g. drugs, same-sex relationships, criticism of the government, communism, obscene language, pornography and so forth. Basically, I’d like the books to mention topics that would probably get them censored back then. Sorry if I sound ignorant, I only know about movie censorship at that time, but I imagine it was likely the same for literature.
by tomwolsey
11 Comments
Wilhelm Reich.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Reich
Last novel I read was V. by Thomas Pynchon
Two classics from the 50s:
The Price Of Salt by Patricia Highsmith was published under a pseudonym because Highsmith was told it would destroy her career to publish a lesbian novel.
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov was originally published by a French porn imprint after being turned down by just about every major publisher. And then it was banned in both France and the UK. Child sexual abuse of course isn’t a “controversial for its time” thing—if anything it was less widely condemned then than it is now—but people *really* didn’t know how to respond to its depiction.
Lavender House by Lev AC Rosen. Queer-centric murder mystery set in the 1950s.
the story of “O”…by anonymous….
anis ninn wrote some funky shit also
as did the marquise de sade
Revolutionary Road
BUtterfield 8 by John O’Hara
Mandingo by Kyle Onstott
Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
Bastard by Erskine Caldwell — sea also Tobacco Road and God’s Little Acre
Peyton Place by Grace Metallious was extremely controversial when it was published in the 1950s, including class privilege, adultery, sexual abuse, and abortion among the topics covered in it. It was censored before publication as well.
These are modern books:
* The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood (edit: I just realized, you specify America but this is set in Canada. Still, it deals with social scandals in the 1940s and 50s.)
* The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Valley of the dolls – Jacqueline Susann – sex drugs and the good life
Myra Breckinridge -Gore Vidal – exploration of sexuality
Well of loneliness-Radcliffe Hall – lesbianism
A clockwork orange – Anthony Burgess
By the way, just remembered a movie called Reflections In a Golden Eye which deals with repressed sexuality, sadism, fetishism etc. It’s based on a book written in 1940.