Books banned in Australia
For much of the twentieth century Australian Customs kept a long list of banned imports, including novels now considered classics. Penguin's 1970 publication of Portnoy's Complaint, and the prosecutions that followed, helped end literary censorship there.
Portnoy's Complaint
Roth's comic novel, told as a confession to a psychoanalyst, of a young man's sexual frustrations and his family.
Why it was banned: Banned in Australia; when Penguin published it there in 1970, it led to obscenity prosecutions in several states.
The Catcher in the Rye
Salinger's novel of Holden Caulfield's days in New York after being expelled from his school.
Why it was banned: Banned by Australian Customs from 1956 to 1957.