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The Censor's Library: Uncovering the Lost History of Australia's Banned Books
The first comprehensive examination of Australian book censorship, this enlightening and enthralling discussion is based on Nicole Moore’s discovery of the secret "censor’s library" in theÌýNational Archives.ÌýCombining scholarship with the narrative tension of a thriller,Ìýthe book exposes the scandalous history of censorship in Australia. Built and maintained to ensure the books it held were not read—from the Kama Sutra to Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover and Joyce’s ±«±ô²â²õ²õ±ð²õâ€�the censor’s library was kept to negate the function of libraries: 793 boxes kept safe and intact for six decades. Through courtroom dramas and internecine bureaucracy, stolen libraries and police raids, authorial scandals and moral panics, this isÌýaÌýprovocative account on a subject that continues to attract heated debate.
432 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2012
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About the author
Nicole Moore
3ÌýbooksNicole Moore is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow in English literary studies at UNSW Canberra. Her main research interest is Australian literature, combined with interdisciplinary and comparative research in cultural history, gender and sexuality studies, and book history, with a special interest in censorship. Her research pursues issues at stake in the political cultures of writing and reading, and the complex relations of literature and history within and across national boundaries.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
May 24, 2022
“On 23 March 1948, Robert Close was sat on a wooden bench in the Victorian Criminal Court and listened to his novel being read aloud. Copies had been distributed to the Jury and the Crown Prosecutor, Leo Little KC, stood in the middle of the room and read Love Me Sailor to the court from beginning to end. Close and his publisher Ted Harris of Georgian House, had been charged with a criminal offense: ‘that they did, on or about the 16th of February 1945 publish said book, being one containing obscene matter�. "
When reading this chapter, called Literature in Handcuffs, I was struck by the dates. At this point the world had witnessed the deaths of maybe 60 million a short few years previously, a genuinely obscene waste of lives, so what do we have here in Australia at this time? A high profile criminal case based on a book being supposedly obscene. Now with a title like that one would think it was maybe about homosexuality that being one of the obsessions of the censors at the time in their never ending attempt to keep the country white and orthodox? The answer is no. It was a book about an English lady who ends up on a merchant ship and is such an attractive lady that the very fabric of the ship's all male crew is sent into a spiral of sexual psychosis that affects the mental wellbeing of the crew and the lady.
“The prosecutions� main objection to Love Me Sailor was, as Close anticipated, its sailors language � most intensely the word ‘rutting� as too obvious a substitute for the fucking�
In 1948 the Australian public was shielded from the F word but had no issue with racist language in its literature, I’ve read this myself, nor vile political policy such as the White Australia Policy nor its treatment of the indigenous population that was treated under law as flora and fauna and had its children stolen en masse. Close served 10 days in jail and departed Australia on release, not to return for 25 years.
Author Nicole Moore has done some very good and deep research into banned books in Australia.
Moore has presented a history of what is a complicated beast of customs control through to state and federal laws and regulations that was only really overcome with the advent of progressive change via conservative minister for Customs Don Chipp in the 1960’s and with the change to a Labor government in the early 70’s who stopped Customs from having any input at all on the banning of books. This still did not stop some states banning books, Queensland a stand out with American Psycho not for the eyes of the likes of me until recent times, but nationally there was definitely a more relaxed attitude as to what adults could read.
There is an excellent bibliography and the endnotes are extensive. I have found this a very easy to read history and spent my time searching out little known titles that were on the end of the censors ban that today would hardly make a stir. As to the more famous banned books the list is rather startling at times. A Brave New World through to Keep the Aspidistra Flying are among many. The quantity of works discussing sex education, birth control for example, was enormous. The title comes from Moore’s research in the national archives where she found about 12,000 titles all wrapped up and stored in 793 boxes. I would imagine some of these just might be worth a little to collectors of rarities.
Highly recommended to anyone with an interest in censorship.
When reading this chapter, called Literature in Handcuffs, I was struck by the dates. At this point the world had witnessed the deaths of maybe 60 million a short few years previously, a genuinely obscene waste of lives, so what do we have here in Australia at this time? A high profile criminal case based on a book being supposedly obscene. Now with a title like that one would think it was maybe about homosexuality that being one of the obsessions of the censors at the time in their never ending attempt to keep the country white and orthodox? The answer is no. It was a book about an English lady who ends up on a merchant ship and is such an attractive lady that the very fabric of the ship's all male crew is sent into a spiral of sexual psychosis that affects the mental wellbeing of the crew and the lady.
“The prosecutions� main objection to Love Me Sailor was, as Close anticipated, its sailors language � most intensely the word ‘rutting� as too obvious a substitute for the fucking�
In 1948 the Australian public was shielded from the F word but had no issue with racist language in its literature, I’ve read this myself, nor vile political policy such as the White Australia Policy nor its treatment of the indigenous population that was treated under law as flora and fauna and had its children stolen en masse. Close served 10 days in jail and departed Australia on release, not to return for 25 years.
Author Nicole Moore has done some very good and deep research into banned books in Australia.
Moore has presented a history of what is a complicated beast of customs control through to state and federal laws and regulations that was only really overcome with the advent of progressive change via conservative minister for Customs Don Chipp in the 1960’s and with the change to a Labor government in the early 70’s who stopped Customs from having any input at all on the banning of books. This still did not stop some states banning books, Queensland a stand out with American Psycho not for the eyes of the likes of me until recent times, but nationally there was definitely a more relaxed attitude as to what adults could read.
There is an excellent bibliography and the endnotes are extensive. I have found this a very easy to read history and spent my time searching out little known titles that were on the end of the censors ban that today would hardly make a stir. As to the more famous banned books the list is rather startling at times. A Brave New World through to Keep the Aspidistra Flying are among many. The quantity of works discussing sex education, birth control for example, was enormous. The title comes from Moore’s research in the national archives where she found about 12,000 titles all wrapped up and stored in 793 boxes. I would imagine some of these just might be worth a little to collectors of rarities.
Highly recommended to anyone with an interest in censorship.
May 26, 2012
The Censor’s Library really is a very interesting book. Prior to reading it, I had thought that censorship in Australia was mostly a matter of wowserism, but Nicole Moore makes it clear that there was much more to it than that.
The Censor’s Library covers so much territory that it’s hard to know where to begin. I read a chapter or so each morning over weekday breakfasts for the best part of six weeks, and often found myself scribbling down thoughts while my cereal went soggy and my coffee cooled. I have scraps of commentary all through the book on the backs of envelopes and sticky notes, and just writing this review makes me want to read parts of it again, particularly since the book has been shortlisted in the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards in the Prize for Australian History category. Exploring 12000 banned items held in 793 boxes covering 60 years of censorship to its relaxation in the 1980s, Moore discusses censorship on the grounds of obscenity and religious offence; homosexuality and race-relations; birth control, abortion and childbirth without pain; self-censorship; sedition and terrorism. She also discusses issues of contemporary censorship including something I hadn’t realised about the Intervention: there are restrictions on pornography in indigenous communities which don’t apply elsewhere in Australia.
The book begins with an explanation of the mechanisms by which books were so successfully banned for so many years. When a country is governed in a muddle of state and federal legislation like ours is, there are limitless opportunities for busybodies to interfere in the lives of others, and the creativity with which officialdom exercised its powers is a wonder to behold. As the author says:
Mechanisms used to protect Australian readers from offence included the common law, statutes, legal regulations, court rulings and decisions, policy and bureaucratic processes, expert and inexpert opinion and the influence of medical and psychological discourses, as well as the discourse of literary scholarship, employed as the learned practice of decoding meaning. (p. xv)
This last, literary scholarship used to decode meaning, is especially droll in the case of the scurrilous Ern Malley poems. This famous literary hoax involved sending meaningless mock poems in the modernist style to the hapless editor of Angry Penguins, who published them with great enthusiasm only to have the heavy hand of the censor descend because they were too rude for us to read. In the ensuing obscenity trial, the problem for both prosecution and defence was that they both had to prove that the poems had meaning in order for them to be declared either obscene or alternatively of some literary merit. I think if you check out the poetry at the Ern Malley website, you will see for yourself just how comic the trial must have been.
To read the rest of my review please visit
The Censor’s Library covers so much territory that it’s hard to know where to begin. I read a chapter or so each morning over weekday breakfasts for the best part of six weeks, and often found myself scribbling down thoughts while my cereal went soggy and my coffee cooled. I have scraps of commentary all through the book on the backs of envelopes and sticky notes, and just writing this review makes me want to read parts of it again, particularly since the book has been shortlisted in the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards in the Prize for Australian History category. Exploring 12000 banned items held in 793 boxes covering 60 years of censorship to its relaxation in the 1980s, Moore discusses censorship on the grounds of obscenity and religious offence; homosexuality and race-relations; birth control, abortion and childbirth without pain; self-censorship; sedition and terrorism. She also discusses issues of contemporary censorship including something I hadn’t realised about the Intervention: there are restrictions on pornography in indigenous communities which don’t apply elsewhere in Australia.
The book begins with an explanation of the mechanisms by which books were so successfully banned for so many years. When a country is governed in a muddle of state and federal legislation like ours is, there are limitless opportunities for busybodies to interfere in the lives of others, and the creativity with which officialdom exercised its powers is a wonder to behold. As the author says:
Mechanisms used to protect Australian readers from offence included the common law, statutes, legal regulations, court rulings and decisions, policy and bureaucratic processes, expert and inexpert opinion and the influence of medical and psychological discourses, as well as the discourse of literary scholarship, employed as the learned practice of decoding meaning. (p. xv)
This last, literary scholarship used to decode meaning, is especially droll in the case of the scurrilous Ern Malley poems. This famous literary hoax involved sending meaningless mock poems in the modernist style to the hapless editor of Angry Penguins, who published them with great enthusiasm only to have the heavy hand of the censor descend because they were too rude for us to read. In the ensuing obscenity trial, the problem for both prosecution and defence was that they both had to prove that the poems had meaning in order for them to be declared either obscene or alternatively of some literary merit. I think if you check out the poetry at the Ern Malley website, you will see for yourself just how comic the trial must have been.
To read the rest of my review please visit
December 6, 2017
Gosh, this book took FOREVER to read! It's very thorough and a great resource for those who want to know everything about censorship in Australia.
The only issues were that it was way more in-depth than I wanted/thought it was going to be, and it's difficult to read over a long period. It talks about so many different people (and books) that it's hard to remember who's who when you pick it up again. However, it's obviously very well-researched, and I now know a lot more about censorship than I wanted to know. ;)
The only issues were that it was way more in-depth than I wanted/thought it was going to be, and it's difficult to read over a long period. It talks about so many different people (and books) that it's hard to remember who's who when you pick it up again. However, it's obviously very well-researched, and I now know a lot more about censorship than I wanted to know. ;)
August 6, 2012
Fascinating look at what Australians historically could NOT read, which would have had as much impact on the Australian identity as what we could. Interesting to ponder, for example, how lives would have been changed if Australians had been able to read positive portrayals of homosexuality earlier in the twentieth century. The concern of officials to particularly protect vulnerable readers - women, children, the working class, non-Anglo Celts - from dangerous books is almost amusing, if it hadn't been so effective and had such widespread implications, and of it wasn't still happening in the NT 'Intervention' and 'Stronger Futures' legislation. The panic in the middle of last century about comic books does provide a perspective from which to view current concerns about young people accessing 'Internet porn': are we seeing another unjustifiable moral panic or is the censorship justified this time? All in all, I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Australian history; it's well worth a read.
January 2, 2017
I read the last two chapters while sitting at the computer for two reasons; (1) my attention span is shot and I can't help scrolling tumblr in tiny increments and (2) having Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ open while reading let me keep track of all the subsequent reading I want to do.
Amazing book and much love to the author and to the public servants who disobeyed instructions to destroy the evidence.
Amazing book and much love to the author and to the public servants who disobeyed instructions to destroy the evidence.
May 6, 2018
Until the 1970's Australia's censorship regime was stringent and highly effective. The chief focal points seem to center on birth control (due to the anxiety of maintaining a White Australia), Communism and Socialist literature (to maintain a Liberal White Australia) and homosexuality (to maintain a Patriarchal Liberal White Australia). Ironically, this latter focal point worked to re-introduce its own sense of obscenity into the Australian national culture as obscene poems and rough language (found in folk-poems like the Bastard from the Bush) became enshrined in the early to mid 20th C as part of inherently Australian male culture, especially with the return of the soldiers from the first and second World Wars.
June 1, 2024
3.5/5
A tough, but an enlightening read nevertheless. Nicole Moore peels back the curtain on our country's long relationship with censorship. From banning literature on birth control to preserve white Australian's birth rates to silencing radical politics, every kind reason for censorship is explored; blasphemy, sedition, obscenity, even defamation.
A tough, but an enlightening read nevertheless. Nicole Moore peels back the curtain on our country's long relationship with censorship. From banning literature on birth control to preserve white Australian's birth rates to silencing radical politics, every kind reason for censorship is explored; blasphemy, sedition, obscenity, even defamation.
July 1, 2014
Not that long ago, Nicole Moore discovered an enormous cache of book at the National Archives in Australia. Amongst the 700+ boxes were books which had been banned in Australia throughout the course of its history, many having being banned without even the knowledge of the public at the time. This book is a history of those books and the censorship regimes which existed and still exist in that country. It is a fascinating look at prejudices, beliefs and fears, the marginalisation of ideas and the change in culture and morals over the years. Possibly the most chilling aspect of this history is the fact that censorship is still in existence, with the government and lobby groups still claiming to know what is good for an entire population.
June 1, 2014
A very interesting read, although the start spent a lot of time repeating itself....
Wonderful to know that 6 people can decide what a nation reads, and they were all men who based some of these decisions on what they thought women would think - without actually asking any of them. Also interesting that Australia was harder on censorship than any other country for decades...
Wonderful to know that 6 people can decide what a nation reads, and they were all men who based some of these decisions on what they thought women would think - without actually asking any of them. Also interesting that Australia was harder on censorship than any other country for decades...
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January 18, 2015Very detailed account of all books censored in the 20th century and why, as well as more modern examples, branching out now into art and the internet.
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