Trials of Portnoy: when Penguin fought for literature and liberty
- Written by Patrick Mullins, Adjunct assistant professor, Centre for Creative and Cultural Research, University of Canberra
IMDBOne grey morning in October 1970, in a crowded, tizzy-pink courtroom on the corner of Melbourne’s Russell and La Trobe Streets, crown prosecutor Leonard Flanagan began denouncing a novel in terms that were strident and ringing.
“When taken as a whole, it is lewd,” he declared. “As to a large part of it, it is absolutely...
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