Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor

Kathleen Winsor’s bestselling historical romance novel Forever Amber (first published 1944) became a target for censorship in the mid-20th century. Objecting to Winsor’s including of premarital and extramarital sex, out-of-wedlock pregnancies, and abortions, Boston’s Watch and Ward Society successfully influenced the publisher, Macmillan, to withdraw the book from area stores. This angered Massachusetts residents who wanted to protect freedom of expression in their state, and libraries came to play a key role in defending this freedom. Hiller Wellman, head of the Springfield Public Library, found a sponsor in the Massachusetts Library Association to put forth a new law enacted in late 1945 that stipulated, among other things, that “a bookseller could only be prosecuted for selling a book if the book had been legally ruled obscene and if the person to whom he sold it was under the age of eighteen.” Macmillan vigorously defended the novel when it came to trial in 1947, bringing multiple expert witnesses to attest that it did not meet the definition of obscene. The judge found that the book was “not obscene, indecent, or impure,” and allowed it to be sold in the state.