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The End of Obscenity: The Trials of Lady Chatterley, Tropic of Cancer & Fanny Hill

charles rembar

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George Polk Award Winner: This account of American book banning and the battles against it is "a tour de force to fascinate lawyers and laymen alike” (The New York Times Book Review).
Up until the 1960s, depending on your state of residence, your copy of Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer might be seized by the US Postal Service before reaching your mailbox. Selling copies of Cleland’s Fanny Hill in your bookstore was considered illegal. Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence was, according to the American legal system, pornography with no redeeming social value.
Today, these novels are celebrated for their literary and historic worth. The End of Obscenity is Charles Rembar’s account of successfully arguing the merits of such great works of literature in front of the Supreme Court. As the lead attorney on the case, he—with the support of a few brave publishers—changed the way Americans read and honor books, especially the controversial ones.
Filled with insight from lawyers, justices, and the authors themselves, The End of Obscenity is a lively tour de force. Racy testimony and hilarious asides make Rembar’s memoir not only a page-turner but also an enlightening look at the American legal system.
“[Rembar’s] book deals not with the why of obscenity laws but with the how . . . many of his anecdotal digressions into history and law are sharp and amusing.” —The New Republic

528 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,1968

This edition

Format
528 pages, Paperback
Published
January 1, 1986 by Olympic Marketing Corp
ISBN
9780060970611
ASIN
0060970618
Language
English

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About the author

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charles rembar

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Charles Rembar was an American attorney renowned for his advocacy of First Amendment rights, particularly in cases involving literary censorship. Born in Oceanport, New Jersey, he grew up in Long Branch and later attended Harvard University, earning a bachelor's degree in 1935, followed by a law degree from Columbia Law School in 1938. Early in his career, he worked for various New Deal agencies before serving in the United States Army Air Corps during World War II. After the war, he settled in the New York area, living in Scarsdale and practicing law in Manhattan.
Rembar founded the law firm Rembar & Curtis, representing prominent authors such as Louise Erdrich, Tom Clancy, Herman Wouk, and Norman Mailer, not only as legal counsel but also frequently as a literary agent. His most significant legal work involved First Amendment cases challenging censorship. In 1959, he successfully defended the publication of an unexpurgated edition of Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence after the U.S. Post Office attempted to suppress it. He later played a key role in legal battles surrounding Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller and Fanny Hill by John Cleland, the latter of which reached the U.S. Supreme Court and contributed to shifting the legal stance on obscenity.
Rembar chronicled these landmark cases in his 1968 book The End of Obscenity: The Trials of Lady Chatterley, Tropic of Cancer and Fanny Hill, which earned a George Polk Award in journalism. He later published Perspective (1975), a collection of essays, and The Law of the Land: The Evolution of Our Legal System (1980), a historical exploration of Anglo-American law aimed at general readers.

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Profile Image for Kimberly .
Not-an-Ant
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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This book provides a really fascinating look into moral and legal culture in the 1960s via a trio of obscenity cases, and I love the way Rembar takes us on a long walk through events surrounding those cases.

Very interesting to learn about how these cases ultimately shaped the freedom of press and publication that would be seen later.

Also, I just learned the word "con·cu·pis·cence" (meaning "being mad turned on"). Nice.
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hi3q
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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This was a really great book. It records the multi-year plan Rembar designed and implemented that resulted in the revision of the law governing obscenity. Lots of tactical stuff, cross and direct of witnesses during trials.
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Uriel1988
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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In this day and age, it is hard to believe that there was a time when books were routinely banned for "obscenity." This book details the ultimately successful fight against the censorship of three books: Lady Chatterley's Lover, Tropic of Cancer, and Fanny Hill. The last book resulted in a 1966 Supreme Court case which held that a book was entitled to first amendment protection and could not be banned unless it was utterly without social value.

Rembar, who was the lawyer in the three cases, places large chunks of his brief and trial transcripts in the book. It sounds boring, but I did not find it so. He can't resist making numerous asides in the notes, and is not afraid to criticize Judges (something I find missing from so much of today's legal writing).
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