Letter of support from Herbert Stanton to Macmillan Company

Published in October 1944, Kathleen Winsor’s novel Forever Amber tells the story of an ambitious young woman in Restoration-era London who advances through the social scene in a series of sexual conquests. The novel became a best-selling phenomenon in the United States, but along with its success came a campaign to ban the book in Boston and a national conversation about historical depictions of women’s sexuality and the role of religion in America’s literary discourse. In 1947, a film based on the book was released starring Linda Darnell and Cornel Wilde. In this letter, 16-year-old high school student Herbert Stanton expresses his approval of the Macmillan Company for Forever Amber. He proclaims his support for freedom of the press and argues that there should “be no state-wide bans on books.” Further, Stanton maintains that Winsor’s depiction of the time period was accurate and contends that “If the period was bawdy, let it remain so in books.”

Teach with this item from Unit 1 of the curriculum guide, Reading Dangerously: Censorship and the Freedom to Read in 20th Century America.
 

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