The New York Society for the Suppression of Vice (NYSSV or SSV) was founded in 1873 by Anthony Comstock and his supporters in the Young Men's Christian Association. It was chartered by the New York state legislature. After his death, Comstock was succeeded by John Sumner.[1] The New York Society for the Suppression of Vice is not to be confused with its namesake, the earlier, eighteenth-century Society for the Suppression of Vice.
It was an institution dedicated to supervising the morality of the public. Its specific mission was to monitor compliance with state laws and work with the courts and district attorneys in bringing offenders to justice. It and its members also pushed for additional laws against perceived immoral conduct.
In 1919 it failed in its effort to suppress the fantasy novel Jurgen, A Comedy of Justice by James Branch Cabell and ended up giving it considerable publicity and boosting its sales.
In 1919 at its urging a police raid at the Everard Baths resulted in nine arrests.[1]
In 1920 after the magazine The Little Review serialized a passage of the book Ulysses dealing with the main character masturbating, the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, 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.
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- ^ Kreymborg, Alfred, Troubador, 1925, chapter 12, page 79 of the 1957, Sagamore Press paperback.
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