Ladies in the Parlor

New York: Greenberg: Publisher. Poor. (c.1935). First Edition. Hardcover. a Tully's unsentimentalized tale of a young woman who escapes small-town poverty (and various abusive and sexually aggressive men) by going to work in a high-class and politically well-connected Chicago brothel was beset by serious censorship trouble. Banned outright in Canada, it was one of eight American-authored books that were the subject of obscenity prosecutions in the U.S. between 1934 and 1944 (Sova, "Banned Books: Literature Suppressed on Sexual Grounds," pp.98-100). It was declared obscene by a New York court in November 1935; authorities there and elsewhere responded by confiscating and burning many copies. Although fined only a measly $50, the publishers nonetheless abandoned the book in the face of the many prohibitions against its distribution and sale. H.L. Mencken considered it one of Tully's best works. .