Ephraim London papers, 1940-1975.

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Ephraim London papers, 1940-1975.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/426032532

Ephraim London conducted many important First Amendment proceedings during his career. This collection contains substantial records relating to two of his best-known cases. It includes legal documents, clippings, correspondence, and courtroom notes from his 1964 defense of Lenny Bruce, the comedian. This series features letters between attorney and client, which follow the course of an increasingly uneasy relationship. In 1961, London represented Grove Press in its attempt to publish Henry Miller's "Tropic of Cancer". This collection includes correspondence, legal records, and trial notes from the case. It also features a huge collection of newspaper and magazine clippings related to the topic, which tracks the national debate on issues of censorship and obscenity during this period. Beyond these two major cases, London's papers include records from his own research into legal and philosophical questions of obscenity and free speech. There are also files detailing his work on film censorship for Embassy Pictures during the early 1960s. At the time, local boards could request edits and prohibit movies from being shown in their jurisdiction. It was London's job to get the films - often the work of famed European auteurs - screened as they had been intended. Among other things, the correspondence here tracks a running, and increasingly exasperated, dialogue between the attorney and Kitty McMahon, of the Kansas State Board of Review, who always demanded the highest standards of cinematic decorum for her constituency. Another aspect of London's career is also well represented in this collection. For years, he worked as an attorney for Simon and Schuster, the publishing company. Through correspondence, financial statements, meeting minutes, and distribution and sales contracts, his papers offer insights into the company's business practices during the 1950s and 1960s. Simon and Schuster's negotiations with other publishers, especially Pocket Books and Little Golden, are included in these papers. London was also responsible for vetting individual books for possible instances of libel, and handling any legal issues that arose after publication. Records from other facets of London's work are absent from this collection. There is little here about his defense of Fifth Amendment cases. None of his personal writings, and few of the articles that he penned during his career, are present. The Lenny Bruce and "Tropic of Cancer" cases are well documented, but London's other major censorship cases are not represented.

5.5 linear ft. (11 archival document boxes)

Columbia University in the City of New York, Columbia University Libraries

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 7450931

Columbia University in the City of New York, Columbia University Libraries

Related Entities

There are 7 Entities related to this resource.

Bruce, Lenny, 1925-1966

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6qp6zv9 (person)

Leonard Alfred Schneider (October 13, 1925 – August 3, 1966), known professionally as Lenny Bruce, was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, and satirist. He was renowned for his open, freestyle and critical form of comedy which contained satire, politics, religion, sex, and vulgarity. His 1964 conviction in an obscenity trial was followed by a posthumous pardon, the first in the history of New York State, by Governor George Pataki in 2003. Bruce paved the way for counterculture era c...

Spewack, Bella Cohen, 1899-1990

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w60005pv (person)

Grove Press.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6hq8nxq (corporateBody)

U.S. publishing firm, 1949- . From the description of Press releases, 1959, re D. H. Lawrence's "Lady Chatterley's Lover" [manuscript]. (University of Virginia). WorldCat record id: 647833316 Grove Press is an American alternative book press founded in 1951 by editor and publisher Barney Rossett. It merged with The Atlantic Monthly Press in 1991 and as of 2010 is an imprint of the publisher Grove/Atlantic, Inc. Grove Press was known for its unusual and sometimes controversia...

Miller, Henry, 1891-1980.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6tb16w7 (person)

Novelist. From the description of Papers, 1952-1957. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 155457225 Henry Miller (1891-1980) was an American author. He was known for his experimental, surrealist novels, such as Tropic of Cancer, which mixed fiction and autobiography. His writing was controversial for its graphic depictions of sexuality, leading to a 1964 obscenity trial in the United States, Grove Press, Inc. v. Gerstein. From the guide to the Henry Miller Letter, unda...

Simon and Schuster Inc

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6xh3m1d (corporateBody)

Simon and Schuster had been a publisher of English translations of Werfel's works in the 1920s and 1930s (by the time of this correspondence, those rights had been transferred to Viking Press). Richard Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster were the founders and heads of the company, which was based in New York City; they maintained a personal friendship with Werfel and Alma Mahler. Howe was an editor at Simon and Schuster. From the description of Correspondence with Alma Mahler and Franz Wer...

London, Ephraim

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6741211 (person)

A prominent defender of the First Amendment, Ephraim S. London spent much of his career challenging conservative distinctions between art and obscenity. He ranked among the nation's leading constitutional lawyers during the 1950s and 1960s, when he litigated a series of major cases pushing for the end of censorship in motion pictures. He also helped shepherd "Tropic of Cancer" to its first American printing - 27 years after Henry Miller had finished writing it. London defended Lenny...

Spewack, Samuel, 1899-1971

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w69k4f7h (person)

Author, screenwriter. From the description of Reminiscences of Samuel Loebel Spewack : oral history, 1958. (Columbia University In the City of New York). WorldCat record id: 86131679 Authors, screenwriters; interviewees are married. From the description of Reminiscences of Samuel Loebel and Bella Cohen Spewack : oral history, 1958. (Columbia University In the City of New York). WorldCat record id: 122308382 BIOGHIST REQUIRED Samuel Spewack, 1899-1971 (Co...