The NYSSV was founded by
Anthony Comstock and his supporters in the
Young Men's Christian Association. In May 1873, the NYSSV was chartered by the
New York state legislature, which granted its agents the powers of search, seizure, and arrest, and awarded the society half of all fines levied in resulting cases.
William Henry Parsons headed this Society from 1930 to 1935. Later that year,
The New York Times said that the Society's efforts would be in vain because "widely read newspapers can flaunt criminal advertisements, or prurient or sensuous descriptions and accounts of the proceedings of the divorce courts, and other nastiness, before their readers, not only unpunished, but with the moral support of the oftentimes respectable and religious families that patronize them."
The New York Daily Herald complimented the Society for suppressing obscene literature that causes "destruction of the corner stone of our societal system" and has "tainted and poisoned" the minds of children. After Comstock's death in 1915, he was succeeded by
John S. Sumner. In 1947, the organization's name was changed to the Society to Maintain Public Decency because the former name no longer described the society's work. After Sumner's retirement in 1950, the organization was dissolved.
Actions pursued • 1900: Encouraged authorities to arrest
Olga Nethersole and others for "violating public decency" in
Clyde Fitch's
Broadway play
Sapho. All were found innocent at trial. • 1915: Forced off the market
Stanisław Przybyszewski's
Homo sapiens • 1916: Forced off the market
Theodore Dreiser's
The Genius. • 1916: Opposed
Margaret Sanger and publishers of
birth control books. • 1919: At its urging a police raid at the
Everard Baths resulted in nine arrests. • 1920: Seized the printing plates and all pages to
Jurgen: A Comedy of Justice by
James Branch Cabell. Charges were dismissed two years later, but banning the book boosted its sales. • 1920: After the magazine
The Little Review serialized a passage of the book
Ulysses dealing with the
main character masturbating, the NYSSV, who objected to the book's content, took action to attempt to keep the book out of the United States. At a
trial in 1921 the magazine was declared obscene and as a result
Ulysses was banned in the United States. • 1922: Encouraged the arrest of bookstore employee Raymond D. Halsey for selling the "obscene" novel
Mademoiselle de Maupin by
Théophile Gautier, which depicted adultery and homosexuality. Halsey was acquitted, and successfully sued the Society for false arrest and malicious prosecution. This case established that literary experts could offer testimony in support of a book to guide the judge's opinion. • 1922: Unsuccessful lawsuit against the publishing house Thomas Seltzer for publishing ''Casanova's Homecoming
by Arthur Schnitzler and A Young Girl's Diary'' (with foreword by
Sigmund Freud) by
Hermine Hug-Hellmuth. • 1920s and '30s: Prosecuted a long war against the so-called "girlie pulps," which featured titillating fiction, sometimes accompanied with nude photography. • 1925: Attacked as indecent the magazines
Artists and Models and ''
Art Lovers' Magazine''. • 1927: Attacked publisher
Bernarr Macfadden's newspaper, the
New York Graphic. • 1927: Shut down
Mae West's first starring role on Broadway, the play
Sex. West spent ten days in jail. • 1929: Seized 3,000 books from three book dealers; titles included
Ulysses, ''
Lady Chatterley's Lover'', and novels by
Oscar Wilde,
Frank Harris and
Clement Wood. • 1930: Forced
pulp publisher
Harold Hersey to suppress the depiction of violence and lawlessness in his new line of gang pulps, which included
Gangster Stories and
Racketeer Stories. • 1932: Falsely arrested a bookseller for displaying a book on
nudism in his store's window. John S. Sumner, secretary of the society, was ordered to pay the bookseller $500 in restitution. • 1933: Wins conviction resulting in a $200 fine over distribution of the book "The Man In The Monkey Suit" by Frances W. King. • 1933: Lost fight to have
Erskine Caldwell's novel ''
God's Little Acre'' declared obscene. • 1934: Raided magazine "back-number" shops to confiscate four new magazines with the titles
Real Boudoir Tales,
Real Temptation Tales,
Real Forbidden Sweets, and
Real French Capers. • 1935: Charged that
Jim Tully's novel
Ladies in the Parlor was indecent and emphasized "dirt in the raw." • 1937: Attempted to block circulation of
James T. Farrell's novel
A World I Never Made for using obscene language. • 1946: Charged
Edmund Wilson's
Memoirs of Hecate County with obscenity. ==Note==