Our new cafe display features the covers of nearly 90 books and magazines banned in Australia between the 1920s and the 1970s.

This A-Z provides information about these prohibited pubications, including links to digitised documents held in the National Archives collection.

Click on a book cover or title to find out more.

A

James Baldwin, Another Country, The Dial Press, New York, 1962

Banned: 1963 to 1966

Art of Kissing, Devendra, Delhi, 1950

Banned: c.1950s

B

Conrad Phillips, The Barber’s Wife, Arthur Barker Limited, London, 1953

Banned: c.1950s

Best Detective Cases, July 1948

Banned: c.1940s

Black Mask Detective, December 1950

Banned: c.1950s

Breezy Stories, May 1938

Banned: c.1930s

Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, Chatto & Windus, London, 1932

Banned: 1932 to 1937

C

Harold Robbins, The Carpetbaggers [1961], Anthony Blond, London, 1963

Banned: 1961 to 1971

JD Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye [1951], Signet Books, New York, 1953

Banned: 1956 to 1957

Fan Nichols, Count Me In, Popular Library, New York, 1953

Banned: c.1950s

Edwin D Radin, Crimes of Passion [1953], GP Putnam’s Sons, New York, 1954

Banned: c.1950s

D

Ricky Drayton, Death Comes Wholesale, 1953

Banned: c.1950s

Boccaccio, Decameron [c.1353], Bröderna Ljungbergs Boktr, Stockholm, 1946

Banned: 1927 to 1936; 1938 to 1973

‘Michael Storme’ (George Dawson), The Devil Has a Racket, Harborough Publishing Company Ltd, London, 1953

Banned: c.1950s

Griff, Devil’s Daughter, n.d.

Banned: c.1950s

George Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London, Victor Gollancz Ltd, London, 1933

Banned: 1933 to 1953

Honoré de Balzac, Droll Stories [1832], Moritz & Chambers Ltd, London, n.d.

Banned: 1901 to 1923; 1928 to c.1973

E

Evergreen, March 1968

Banned: c.1960s

F

Kathleen Winsor, Forever Amber, The Modern Publishing Company, London, 1945

Banned: 1945 to 1958

H

‘Darcy Glinto’ (Harold Kelly), The Hangman is a Woman, Robin Hood Press, London, c.1953

Banned: c.1950s

Steve Markham, Honey, Not Now, Maxwell, Love & Co. Ltd, London, n.d.

Banned: c.1950s

John Dexter, Hooked, Idle Hour Books, San Diego, 1966

Banned: c.1960s

Horror Stories, April/May 1936

Banned: c.1930s

Ruth Lyons, Hotel Wife, Macaulay Company, New York, 1933

Banned: 1935 to 1963

Donald Henderson Clarke, The Housekeeper’s Daughter [1938], Avon, New York, 1953

Banned: 1949 to c.1960s

How Man Tempts Woman, Capital Book Company, New Delhi, n.d.

Banned: c.1950s

I

Loren Wahl, The Invisible Glass [1950], Greenberg, New York, 1965

Banned: 1953 to 1971

Intimate Romances, May 1938

Banned: c.1930s

J

Margot Bland, Julia, Northumberland Press Limited, London, 1952

Banned: c.1950s

K

Vatsyayana, Kama Sutra, DB Taraporevala Sons & Co. Private Ltd, Bombay, 1961

Banned: c.1960s

Mickey Spillane, Kiss Me, Deadly, Arthur Barker Limited, London, 1953

Banned: c.1950s

L

DH Lawrence, Lady Chatterley’s Lover [1928], The New American Library of World Literature Inc., New York, 1959

Banned: 1929 to 1965

Bruno Fischer, The Lady Kills, Fawcett Publications Inc., 1952

Banned: c.1950s

Hubert Selby Jr, Last Exit to Brooklyn [1957], Calder and Boyars Limited, London, 1968

Banned: 1965 to 1973

Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita, Weidenfeld and Nicholson, London, 1961

Banned: 1958 to 1965

Mickey Spillane, The Long Wait [1951], EP Dutton and Co. Inc., New York, 1956

Banned: c.1950s

Eliot Brewster, Love Above All, Palace Promotions, New York, n.d.

Banned: c.1950s

Dean Hudson, Love Defector, Corinth Publications, San Diego, 1966

Banned: c.1960s

Robert S Close, Love Me Sailor [1945], Pan Books, London, 1959

Banned: 1951 to 1960

M

Milton K Ozaki, Maid for Murder, Ace Books, New York, 1955

Banned: c.1950s

The Master Detective, February 1931

Banned: c.1930s

John Cleland, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [1749], GP Putnam’s Sons, New York, 1963

Banned: 1940 to 1973

Mickey Spillane, My Gun Is Quick [1951], Morrison and Gibb Limited, London, 1957

Banned: c.1950s

Gore Vidal, Myra Breckinridge, Bantam Books, New York, 1968

Banned: 1968 to 1973

N

William Burroughs, The Naked Lunch [1959], Corgi Books, London, 1962

Banned: 1960 to 1973

Jack Hanley, New York Model, Designe Publishing Corporation, 1953

Banned: c.1950s

Richard Jessup, Night Boat to Paris, Dell Publishing Company, New York, 1956

Banned: c.1950s

‘James Hadley Chase’ (René Lodge Brabazon Raymond), No Orchids for Miss Blandish [1942], Avon, New York, 1951

Banned: 1938 to 1958

Mark Reed, The Nude Stranger, Magazine Productions, New York, 1952

Banned: c.1950s

O

Mike Kerrigan, Once Upon a Crime, Milestone Publications, London, 1953

Banned: c.1950s

Mickey Spillane, One Lonely Night [1951], Morrison and Gibb Limited, London, 1958

Banned: c.1950s

Steve Marcus, The Other Victorians: a study of sexuality and pornography in mid-nineteenth century England [1964], Corgi Books, London, 1966

Banned: 1966 to 1971

Oz, July 1969

Banned: c.1960s

P

‘Dirk Foster’ (Geoffrey Pardoe), Pam Slipped Up, Gaywood Press, London, n.d.

Banned: c.1950s

Grace Metalious, Peyton Place, Dell Publications, New York, 1956

Banned: 1957 to 1971

Charles Willeford, Pick-up, Beacon Books, New York, 1955

Banned: 1956 to 1971

Playboy, June 1959

Banned: c.1950s

Playboy, December 1966

Banned: c.1960s

Philip Roth, Portnoy’s Complaint, Lowe and Brydone Limited, London, 1969

Banned: 1969 to 1971

‘NR De Mexico’ (Robert Campbell Bragg), Private Chauffeur, n.d.

Banned: c.1950s

R

James Clayford, Respectable Harlot, World Distributors Ltd, Manchester, n.d.

Banned: c.1950s

‘Darcy Glinto’ (Harold Kelly), Road Floozie [1941], Robin Hood Press, London, 1953

Banned: 1942 to c.1960s

S

DH Smith, Satan’s Mate, Newstand Library Incorporation, Chicago, 1960.

Banned: c.1960s

James McKimmey Jr, The Satyr, Monarch Books Inc., Derby, Connecticut, 1960

Banned: c.1960s

Herbert O Pruett, Scandal High, Beacon Books, New York, 1960

Banned: c.1960s

‘Darcy Glinto’ (Harold Kelly), She Gave Me Hell and… [1950], Robin Hood Press, London 1953

Banned: c.1950s

Ian Fleming, The Spy Who Loved Me, Jonathan Cape, London, 1962

Banned: c.1960s

Jane Gallion, Stoned, Essex House Original, 1969

Banned: c.1960s

Pauline Réage, Story of O, The Olympia Press, London, n.d.

Banned: 1965 to c.1973

T

Tales of Horror, 1952

Banned: c.1950s

Ten-story Love, July 1938

Banned: c.1938

David Alexander, Terror on Broadway, Bantam Books, New York, 1954

Banned: c.1950s

‘Michael Storme’ (George Dawson), Tiptoe Thro’ a Graveyard, Harborough Publishing Company, London, 1953

Banned: c.1950s

Theodore Pratt, The Tormented [1950], 1959

Banned: 1951 to 1961

CH Rolph (ed), The Trial of Lady Chatterley, Penguin Books, London, 1961

Banned: 1961 to 1965

True Confessions, October 1959

Banned: c.1960

True Crime, August c.1950s

Banned: c.1950s

True Detective, October 1961

Banned: c.1961

True Experience, October 1965

Banned: 1966

U

JM Harcourt, Upsurge, John Long Limited, London, 1934

Banned: 1934 to 1958

V

Mickey Spillane, Vengeance is Mine [1951], Corgi Books, London, 1960

Banned: c.1950s

‘James Hadley Chase’ (René Lodge Brabazon Raymond), The Villain and the Virgin [1942], Howell, Soskin, Publishers Inc., New York, 1949

Banned: c.1940s

W

Norman Mailer, Why Are We in Vietnam? [1967], Lowe & Brydone, London, 1969

Banned: 1968 to 1971

Robert K Shedd, The Wicked Wife, Newsstand Library Books, Chicago, 1960

Banned: c.1960s

Orrie Hitt, Wild Oats, Universal Publishing and Distributing Corporation, 1958

Banned: c.1950s

Barry Humphries, The Wonderful World of Barry McKenzie, Macdonald & Company, London, 1968

Banned: 1968 to 1971

Y

Jay Carpenter, The Youngest Harlot, Newsstand Library Books, Chicago, 1960

Banned: c.1960s