
Illustration for “The Fig Leaf Edition” of Upton Sinclair’s Oil!
Banned, Burned, Seized, and Censored exhibition at Harry Ransom Center.
For your audio enhancement, I’ll pair this illustration with:
Al Green “Simply Beautiful” perf by Mara Hruby and Nate Mercereau
The exhibition Banned, Burned, Seized, and Censored reveals the machinery of censorship at work in America during the interwar years, letting writers, reformers, attorneys, and publishers speak for themselves and illuminating the complex negotiations that occurred at the intersection of literature and “obscenity.”