{"product_id":"banned-in-boston-isbn-9780807051115","title":"Banned in Boston","description":"\u003cp\u003eA lively history of the Watch and Ward Society--New England's notorious literary censor for over eighty years.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBanned in Boston\u003c\/i\u003e is the first-ever history of the Watch and Ward Society--once Boston's unofficial moral guardian. An influential watchdog organization, bankrolled by society's upper crust, it actively suppressed vices like gambling and prostitution, and oversaw the mass censorship of books and plays. A spectacular romp through the Puritan City, here Neil Miller relates the scintillating story of how a powerful band of Brahmin moral crusaders helped make Boston the most straitlaced city in America, forever linked with the infamous catchphrase \"banned in Boston.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003ePrologue \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eBattle   of Brimstone Corner, April 1926 \u003cbr\u003e     \u003cbr\u003e   \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e Part I: Early Days\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eChapter 1 \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Founding Fathers, 1878 \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eChapter 2 \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e First Forays into Censorship, 1881–1898 \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eChapter 3\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Politics, Poker and the “Social Evil”\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eChapter 4 \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Mrs. Glyn and Sin, 1903–1909 \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eChapter 5 \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Tough Guys and “Blue Bloods,” 1907–1925 \u003cbr\u003e    \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e Part II: The Watch and Ward Go to War\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eChapter 6 \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e New Bedford, 1916 \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eChapter 7 \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The Battle of Diamond Hill, 1917–1918 \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eChapter 8 \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Café Society, 1917–1919 \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eChapter 9 \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Corruption Fighters, 1913–1924 \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e Part III: Decline and Fall\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eChapter 10 \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Mencken versus Chase, Round 2, 1926 \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eChapter 11 \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Censorship Goes Wild, 1927–1928 \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eChapter 12 \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Boston, 1929 \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eChapter 13 \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The Dunster Bookshop Fiasco, 1929 \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eChapter 14 \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Depression Days, 1930–1938 \u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e“…Miller’s book is rich with colorful  anecdotes.”—\u003ci\u003eJournal of American History \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“This is a superb  example of breathtaking research, presented in a style that will appeal to a  broad audience…Rather than delivering a detailed history of the Watch and Ward,  he offers up a series of vignettes that are historically accurate yet thoroughly  entertaining in their telling. This is social history at its finest, and Miller  should be applauded for resurrecting the history of this influential group that  had a national reputation.”—\u003ci\u003eChoice Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The fight for artistic freedom in America begins in Boston, and Miller gives us a front-row seat.\"--Christopher M. Finan, president of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression and author of \u003ci\u003eFrom the Palmer Raids to the Patriot Ac\u003c\/i\u003et\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Miller relates a wealth of historical anecdotes...[they] left no shortage of entertaining censorship initiatives for Miller to recall here for readers' enjoyment.\"--\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"As a catchphrase, 'banned in Boston' made history; as an imprimatur it sold books.\" --\u003ci\u003eChronicle Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e“With precision, perception, and wry wit, Neil Miller serves up a juicy tale of censorship past. From sex, drugs, and a swearing parrot to almost anything French, \u003ci\u003eBanned in Boston\u003c\/i\u003e demonstrates that campaigns to save us from ourselves never go out of fashion.”—Nan Levinson, author of \u003ci\u003eOutspoken: Free Speech Stories\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A lively history of the notorious Watch and Ward Society, which for a century sought to establish decency by suppressing ‘obscene’ works by authors such as Boccaccio, Whitman, Dreiser, Faulkner, and Mencken. This is a must read for anyone interested in understanding how censorship ultimately destroys not indecency, but freedom.”—Geoffrey R. Stone, author of \u003ci\u003ePerilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime  from the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terrorism\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“I read this book with one eye over my shoulder, fully expecting the Watch and Ward police to burst in and confiscate it for being too provocative! But it would have been worth it. Neil Miller has given us everything we could ask for in an enjoyable history—a revealing subject, well-drawn characters, and a colorful portrait of another era, all wrapped in a fast-paced, easy-to-read story. \u003ci\u003eBanned in Boston\u003c\/i\u003e is a Boston gem.”—Stephen Puleo, author of \u003ci\u003eA City So Grand\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Boston Italians\u003c\/i\u003e,  and \u003ci\u003eDark Tide\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Neil Miller has created a fascinating and often funny history of a time when censors ruled. The fight for artistic freedom in America begins in Boston, and Miller gives us a front-row seat.”—Christopher M. Finan, president of the American Booksellers Foundation  for Free Expression and author of \u003ci\u003eFrom the Palmer Raids to the  Patriot Act: A History of the Fight for Free Speech in America\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"As a catchphrase,  \"banned in Boston\" made history; as an imprimatur it sold  books. Now telling its story in rollicking fashion is Banned in Boston: The Watch and Ward  Society's Crusade Against Books, Burlesque, and the Social Evil (Beacon Press),  by Neil Miller...\"- \u003ci\u003eChronicle Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“…Miller relates a  wealth of historical anecdotes regarding the likes of H. L. Mencken, Upton  Sinclair, and Walt Whitman …the society moved on to other matters of perceived  public good, but it left no shortage of entertaining censorship initiatives for  Miller to recall here for readers’ enjoyment.”-\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Miller, who knew  almost nothing about the history of book banning in Boston before beginning  research for his book, was presented with the idea for this latest project by  his publishers at Beacon Press after they discovered that their office was  located in the old New England Watch and Ward Society headquarters. Ironically  enough, the building is now a hub of dissemination of many of the types of  literature that the society once sought to ban, he  said.”-\u003ci\u003eThe Tufts Daily\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A fast-paced, highly readable account of a forgotten…chapter in Boston’s  history.”\u003cbr\u003e-\u003ci\u003ePhiloBiblos\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Mr. Miller has  provided a service by being the first to document the entire history of the  notorious Watch and Ward Society, from its formation in 1878 to its last, dying  gasps in the 1950s. The story is fascinating and often funny, and the author  (who teaches journalism at Tufts University)  tells it with clarity and perception.”- \u003ci\u003eThe Washington Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“\u003ci\u003eBanned in Boston\u003c\/i\u003e is Neil Miller’s  entertaining and informative account of the Society’s activities from its  founding through its heyday in the early 1960s…\u003ci\u003eBanned in Boston\u003c\/i\u003e provides a balanced look  at a local movement that represented a widespread – and continuing – tension  within American society.”- \u003ci\u003eSuite 101\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eNeil Miller\u003c\/b\u003e teaches journalism at Tufts University and is the award-winning author of five nonfiction books. His most recent work, \u003ci\u003eKartchner Caverns\u003c\/i\u003e, won the 2009 Arizona Book Award.\u003cb\u003ePrologue\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt was a proverbial match of the titans. In one corner was\u003cbr\u003e H. L. Mencken, the most prominent editor in America, the great iconoclast\u003cbr\u003e and savage and sharp-tongued foe, in his words, of all “preposterous\u003cbr\u003e Puritans,” “malignant moralists,” and “Christians turned cannibals.” In\u003cbr\u003e the other corner was the Reverend J. Frank Chase, Boston’s reigning censor\u003cbr\u003e and moral policeman, secretary of the powerful New England Watch\u003cbr\u003e and Ward Society, scourge of small-time gamblers, burlesque promoters,\u003cbr\u003e and writers who trafficked in “hells” and “goddamns” and anything that\u003cbr\u003e smacked of frankness in terms of sex. The scene was Brimstone Corner,\u003cbr\u003e just off the Boston Common, in front of the Park Street Church, a block\u003cbr\u003e from the gilded dome of the State House. It was at the Park Street Church\u003cbr\u003e where the Watch and Ward Society (then called the New England Society\u003cbr\u003e for the Suppression of Vice) was originally established in 1878.\u003cbr\u003e A week before, Chase, whose word was law to Massachusetts booksellers\u003cbr\u003e and magazine vendors, had ordered the banning of the April 1926\u003cbr\u003e issue of Mencken’s magazine, the \u003ci\u003eAmerican Mercury. \u003c\/i\u003eIt contained a vignette\u003cbr\u003e called “Hatrack,” a tale of prostitution and hypocrisy in a small Missouri\u003cbr\u003e town that Chase contended was obscene. Across the river in Cambridge,\u003cbr\u003e the proprietor of a Harvard Square newsstand had been arrested for selling\u003cbr\u003e a copy of the magazine to a Watch and Ward agent.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Mencken had taken the train up to Boston from his hometown of\u003cbr\u003e Baltimore on April 5, 1926, for the purpose of challenging the Watch\u003cbr\u003e and Ward Society by selling Chase a copy of that very issue. Henry Louis\u003cbr\u003e Mencken was a small man, with “a plum pudding of a body and a square\u003cbr\u003e head stuck on it with no intervening neck,” as British journalist Alistair\u003cbr\u003e Cooke described him. He parted his hair in the middle, and his eyes, so\u003cbr\u003e small that you could see the whites above the irises, gave him “the earnestness\u003cbr\u003e of a gas jet when he talked, an air of resigned incredulity when\u003cbr\u003e he listened, and a merry acceptance of the human race and all its foibles\u003cbr\u003e when he grinned.” He usually dressed “like the owner of a country hardware\u003cbr\u003e store,” noted Cooke. On ceremonial occasions, however, he dressed\u003cbr\u003e “like a plumber got up for church.” This day was one of the latter.\u003cbr\u003e More than a thousand curiosity-seekers—largely Harvard undergraduates—\u003cbr\u003e turned out for the spectacle on the Common. Some hung\u003cbr\u003e off trees and out of windows. Mencken’s lawyer, Arthur Garfield Hays,\u003cbr\u003e lately a counsel for the defense at the Scopes “monkey” trial in Dayton,\u003cbr\u003e Tennessee, arrived first, at about 1:50 in the afternoon. He mounted the\u003cbr\u003e steps of the Park Street Church carrying a bundle of fifty copies of the\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eAmerican Mercury, \u003c\/i\u003eclothed in its famous green cover, to sell just in case\u003cbr\u003e Chase declined to show up at the last minute. The crowd, impatient to\u003cbr\u003e snap up copies of the magazine, rushed towards him, holding out dollar\u003cbr\u003e bills. When Mencken stepped from a taxicab a few minutes later, accompanied\u003cbr\u003e by a \u003ci\u003eBaltimore Sun \u003c\/i\u003ereporter and an Alfred A. Knopf book salesman,\u003cbr\u003e he found no place to move or even stand. It was \u003ci\u003ethat \u003c\/i\u003ecrowded. Traffic officers\u003cbr\u003e tried unsuccessfully to disperse the mob as the editor and his lawyer\u003cbr\u003e pushed their way across Park Street to the Common, where they could\u003cbr\u003e barely gain their footing.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e A man claiming to represent Chase approached Mencken and offered\u003cbr\u003e to buy a copy of the \u003ci\u003eMercury. \u003c\/i\u003eMencken waved him away. It was Chase he\u003cbr\u003e was waiting for. And then, amidst cries of “Here he is!” the superintendent\u003cbr\u003e of police, Michael H. Crowley, cleared a path for the Watch and Ward\u003cbr\u003e secretary. He was accompanied by Captain George W. Peterson, chief of\u003cbr\u003e Boston’s Vice Squad, and a young plainclothes officer named Oliver Garrett,\u003cbr\u003e later to become a notorious character in Boston.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Are you Chase?” demanded Mencken.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “I am,” replied a solidly built man with glasses and a walrus mustache.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “And do you want to buy a copy of the \u003ci\u003eMercury?\u003c\/i\u003e”\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “I do,” came the reply.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Chase offered Mencken a silver half-dollar, and, in a theatrical moment\u003cbr\u003e that delighted the throng, the editor took the coin and bit the end\u003cbr\u003e of it to make sure that it was genuine. Then he handed over a copy of the\u003cbr\u003e magazine.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Officer, arrest that man!” commanded Chase, addressing Captain\u003cbr\u003e Peterson. The Boston police and the Watch and Ward had had their differences\u003cbr\u003e over the years—sometimes the vice organization’s agents had\u003cbr\u003e acted as if they \u003ci\u003ewere \u003c\/i\u003ethe Boston police—but this time the police were more\u003cbr\u003e than happy to do the Watch and Ward’s bidding. Garrett, the plainclothes\u003cbr\u003e officer, tapped Mencken on the arm.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Mencken still had three copies of the \u003ci\u003eMercury \u003c\/i\u003ein his hand. “Throw\u003cbr\u003e them away,” his lawyer counseled.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Mencken tossed the magazines into the air. There was a scramble,\u003cbr\u003e and, in the rush to get a copy, the crowd ripped the magazines to pieces.\u003cbr\u003e Chase handed his over to Peterson.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Then Mencken, hat low on his head and trademark cigar in hand,\u003cbr\u003e accompanied by Hays and followed by several hundred onlookers, was\u003cbr\u003e marched up Tremont Street to police headquarters at Pemberton Square,\u003cbr\u003e four blocks away. He was led to the second floor and booked on a charge\u003cbr\u003e of violating Chapter 272, Section 28, of the Public General Laws of Massachusetts.\u003cbr\u003e The charge was clear—that he, Mencken, “did sell to one\u003cbr\u003e Jason F. Chase certain obscene, indecent, and impure printing . . . manifestly\u003cbr\u003e tending to corrupt the morals of youth.” After that, Mencken was\u003cbr\u003e taken to the Central Municipal Court and formally arraigned. A hearing\u003cbr\u003e was set for 10 a.m. the following day, April 6. Mencken was released on\u003cbr\u003e his own recognizance, with a surety bond fixed at $500.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Chase had won round one.","brand":"Beacon Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46303173902565,"sku":"NP9780807051115","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780807051115.jpg?v=1767722153","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/banned-in-boston-isbn-9780807051115","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}