Life, 1928-10-19 · page 14 of 40
Life — October 19, 1928 — page 14: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This cartoon satirizes book censorship organizations, particularly Boston's Watch and Ward Society. The top cartoon shows a character representing censorship attacking books being delivered by the U.S. Mail. Herold argues that censorship groups claiming to protect literature actually harm it. He proposes a counterintuitive solution: a "Bad-Book-of-the-Month Club" that would publicize censored works, giving them free advertising. His logic: if censors want to suppress certain books, let them profit from promoting them instead—turning censorship into a paying business venture. The satire attacks the hypocrisy of censorship organizations while mocking their financial struggles, suggesting their real motivation is profit rather than moral protection.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
VAG Wy A Censored-Book-of-the-Month Club I don’t mind giving the Bos- ton book censors an idea. Or I will hand it free to any other group of book censors. First come, first served. I am confident that American literature is fer- tilized rather than sterilized by censor- ship, so I am willing to do my bit to boom censorship. The Boston Watch and Ward Society and other self-anointed censorship organ- izations probably (let us hope) have a hard time getting along, financially. Well, I think I have a scheme for putting these babies on a paying basis. If the Book-of-the-Month Club and the Literary Guild can do a good business by recommending good books, why shouldn't there be a fortune for somebody in knock- ing bad books? In short, why shouldn't the Watch and Ward Society examine all the forthcoming books in manuscript form and knock one book a month, and send it at a special rate to members of the Bad-Book-of-the-Month Club? By be- coming a member of such a club you could be assured of receiving, in advance of receipt by the general public, all the outstanding tainted books published in this country, and you could be the first to talk about them in your community. When you sat down to play the piano your friends would laugh and say: “Don’t pls the piano, Joe. Tell us about the last ad book you read.” Now, the Boston censors and other cen- by Don Herold surely they ought to be able to si one tainted book a month, thus eee their subscribers a steady flow of really Bad-Bark-of-the Myth, \yous tan lin whppe nek | Krow tt b va alf-million members in no time at al] The censors sell most of the best-sellin books now, and this without any des: the Plan Wrapper whatever to sell books; think nese N better they might do if they went frankly into the book-selling business. , Think what appealing advertising sui By an organization could emit. “The Board of Snoopers of the Bad-Book-of-the-Month Lec Club have what are acknowledged to te the most sensitive nostrils in the literay ff} world. They are able to detect the nazi PY seating things in literature long before the Pe world in general can come to know them mK Each member of our board is famous fof 8" his contributions to the cultural degrad: Pou: tion of America. Your membership in ths club will make you, too, an authority cz the current worthless literature. Join today,” eli The censors are already dishing the ding Cou on a small scale; why don’t they apply big Hou hi ns are, in effect, performin business methods to their work and pa ied sorship grou} 5 . ii i is? , this vay, service to American book oe Sensorship-oni @ paying, barls ensc ers—but somebody else is reaping the HER PARTY DID NOT ANsWer Sé rofits. My plan would sustain censorship - : LB 2sq in Boston and other cities. If the censors Friend (at social gathering, $0 eR tom are to popularize certain books, why phone girl): Miss Connection, | want yo nny shouldn't the censors get in on the gravy? | ‘© meet Mr. Jones. citen I am sure that the Boston censors, for| TetePHone Gin: Spell out the name ch example, could, instead of banning a book please. . wha now and then when the whim hits them, ————— \ towr casily get their anathematizing down to Stcniricant—A_ word applied ff in th a system and ban or pan one book a|any adept editorial writer to a phenom ® yan month, month in and month out. They | enon, an episode or a trend, or something Flor have shown signs of the hunting instinct; | whose significance eludes him. gan, It's to v kins, Gide ques in d wife: with could from woul hair. Str for | in th ford Whit meat 3 an and ; ham and | = tow Tue ONLY Trine Savep From THE Wreck Was A PHonocrarit AND One Reco ff hay ¢ comicbooks.com