10/07/2026
Banned Books Week continues, and today’s staff pick comes from Brandon.
Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
“Tropic of Cancer has remained an enduring emblem of resistance to censorship practically since the moment it was first published by Obelisk Press in Paris, in 1934. Efforts to import the book into the US, the UK, and other countries were met with bans and seizure by customs agents, to the extent that this and other Obelisk titles (later the Olympia Press) were printed with “Not for sale in US or UK” on their back covers, and copies were often smuggled into these countries. In one example, copies of Tropic of Cancer were wrapped in Jane Eyre dust jackets to thwart customs agents. Grove Press published the first legal American edition in 1961, which prompted dozens of lawsuits against booksellers who carried it, and leading Grove publisher Barney Rosset to hire First Amendment lawyer Charles Rembar to assist booksellers facing prosecution. In 1964, the case Grove Press, Inc. v. Gerstein made it all the way to the Supreme Court, which overruled lower state court rulings that found the book obscene, marking a major victory for the freedom to read.
“But despite its notoriously explicit reputation, particularly in contrast against mid-20th century attitudes, the real joy of Tropic of Cancer is Henry Miller’s writing. Miller did not write poetry, but Cancer reads like a book-length poem, and despite being an often bleak meditation on the human condition, Miller renders its grotesqueries in beautifully eloquent prose.”
Have you read Tropic of Cancer?
