《Banned in Boston》是2010年9月出版的圖書，作者是Neil Miller。
基本介紹
- 外文名：Banned in Boston
- 作者：Neil Miller
- ISBN：9780807051122
內容簡介,作者簡介,
內容簡介
“I want to be intelligent, even if I do live in Boston.”—ananonymous Bostonian, 1929
In this spectacular romp through the Puritan City, Neil Millerrelates the scintillating story of how a powerful band of Brahminmoral crusaders helped make Boston the most straitlaced city inAmerica, forever linked with the infamous catchphrase “Banned inBoston.”
Bankrolled by society’s upper crust, the New England Watch and WardSociety acted as a quasi-vigilante police force and notoriousliterary censor for over eighty years. Often going over the headsof local authorities, it orchestrated the mass censorship of booksand plays, raided gambling dens and brothels, and utilized spies toentrap prostitutes and their patrons.
Miller deftly traces the growth of the Watch and Ward, from itsformation in 1878 to its waning days in the 1950s. During itsheyday, the society and its imitators banished modern classics byHemingway, Faulkner, and Sinclair Lewis and went to war withpublishing and literary giants such as Alfred A. Knopf and TheAtlantic Monthly. To the chagrin of the Watch and Ward, somewriters rode the national wave of publicity that accompanied thebanning of their books. Upton Sinclair declared staunchly, “I wouldrather be banned in Boston than read anywhere else because when youare banned in Boston, you are read everywhere else.” Others facedextinction or tried to barter their way onto bookshelves, like WaltWhitman, who hesitantly removed lines from Leaves of Grass underthe watchful eye of the Watch and Ward. As the Great Depressionunfolded, the society shifted its focus from bookstores toburlesque, successfully shuttering the Old Howard, the city’slegendary theater that attracted patrons from T. S. Eliot to JohnF. Kennedy.
Banned in Boston is a lively history and, despite Boston’s“liberal” reputation today, a cautionary tale of the dangers causedby moral crusaders of all stripes.
作者簡介
Neil Miller teaches journalism at Tufts University and is the award-winning author of five nonfiction books. His most recent work, Kartchner Caverns, won the 2009 Arizona Book Award.
