On 2 November 1960 book publisher Penguin was cleared of obscenity in the publication of Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence.
On 10 November 1960, the full unexpurgated edition, the last of three versions written by Lawrence, was published by Penguin Books in Britain, selling its first print run of 200,000 copies on the first day of publication.
The trial of Penguin under the Obscene Publications Act 1959 was a major public event and a test of the new obscenity law. The 1959 Act, introduced by Roy Jenkins, had made it possible for publishers to escape conviction if they could show that a work was of literary merit.
Leave a Reply