Opinion ID: 1927032
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Book, Tropic of Cancer.

Text: The book, written by Henry Miller, was originally published in Paris in 1934. Grove Press published it in the United States in 1961, first in a hard cover (318 pages, priced at $7.50) and later in a paperback (288 pages, priced at 95 cents). The covers contain no pictorial or similar eye-catching material indicating that the book has spicy content. A Milwaukee distributor of paperbacked books had made the paperback edition available to its 580 dealers. A number of the dealers including supermarkets and most drugstores declined to stock this book. Some 2,400 were sold to stands at traffic points, department stores, large bookstores, a few drugstores, and smoke shops. The book is autobiographical in form. It was the opinion of one of the expert witnesses that much of it is drawn from actual experience, although some of the characters were probably invented. It could be called a pseudonovel. Virtually all the witnesses agreed that the book demonstrates substantial ability to write. The author is represented as an American living in Paris in the depression years about 1930. He considers himself an artist. He has little money and drifts from place to place in the city, sometimes performing service in return for a place to live, sometimes not, and holds a job for one or two periods. He is an iconoclast. He idealizes nothing, and sees life in its crudest terms. He seeks real meaning, but does not appear to find it. He and those around him have frequent and casual sex experiences. The book contains many references to and some descriptions of these episodes. A few of them involve perversions. Some involve prostitutes. Some of the participants are victims of venereal diseases and others are fearful of them. The book appears to be a truthful portrayal of experience, though unsavory. One of the dominant impressions from it is that lives oriented as those of its characters were empty of meaning or value. Much of the language in the book would be offensive to many. References to the sexual episodes, to other bodily functions, and to women are made in short English words of ancient origin and wide, but not often printed, usage, classified by the dictionary [19] as vulgar or, in one or two instances, obscene. But it seems a reasonable conclusion that the use of crude language contributed to the force with which the author expressed his ideas. Although some of these words would not be tolerated in our society if inflicted on unwilling listeners, an offended reader need only close the book in order to escape. [19a] Although some of the passages in the book appeal to prurient interest, or excite lustful thoughts, to some degree, the overall impression, both from the episodes referred to and the language employed is one of surfeit. Considered as a whole, the book does not, in our judgment, appeal to prurient interest. One of the expert witnesses thought the book was valuable as a piece of literature because it purges the reader of prurient interests. One reviewer considered that reading the book may be an emetic experience.