Samuel Roth

January 17, 1894 (age 80)

Nustscha, Carpathian Mountains

Roth wrote poetry and stories for the Jewish Child, the Menorah Journal, and other Yiddish periodicals. In 1914, Roth published his first book of poetry, New Songs of Zion. While a student at Columbia University, Roth began a magazine of contemporary poetry called the Lyric. Among the contributors were the then-unknown D. H. Lawrence and Archibald MacLeish. Later Roth opened the Poetry Bookshop in Greenwich Village. The shop became a favorite haunt of such poets and writers as Sholem Asch, Stephen Vincent Benet, Frank Harris, and Edna St. Vincent Millay. In 1917, Roth also published another book of poems, First Offering. At the close of World War I, Roth was given a short-lived assignment as a correspondent in England for the New York Herald. While overseas he came into contact with the avant-garde writings that would shape his later career. When he returned to New York, Roth published Two Worlds, a quarterly magazine that serialized parts of James Joyce's still incomplete novel, Finnegans Wake. Despite protestations of innocence, Roth apparently had neither sought nor gained Joyce's permission to print this work in progress. Joyce struck back with an unflattering reference to Roth toward the end of the novel: "Rothim! . With his unique hornbook and his prince of the apauper's pride, blundering all over the two worlds. " Although it was not illegal to pirate foreign works in 1925--the United States had not yet signed the International Copyright Agreement--it certainly was unethical. On the one hand, Roth was exposing Americans to an important experiment in fiction; on the other hand, he was not paying for the privilege. In July 1926, Roth repeated the offense. In Two Worlds, now a monthly, he started printing excerpts from James Joyce's Ulysses. The novelist complained about this unauthorized use of his work through his publisher in Paris. But Roth continued to print excerpts, fourteen in all, through October 1927. This time Joyce sought legal redress. He also organized an international protest intent on making this a test case of American copyright law. A document of protest against the unauthorized use of Joyce's work was signed by 167 artists and writers. Even a partial listing (Sherwood Anderson, Benedetto Croce, T. S. Eliot, Andre Gide, Ernest Hemingway, D. H. Lawrence, Thomas Mann, Sean O'Casey, Bertrand Russell, Paul Valery, H. G. Wells, Virginia Woolf, William Butler Yeats) reads like a literary Who's Who of the twentieth century. In publishing Ulysses, Roth ran afoul of the law because the work was considered obscene by the United States government. (Not until 1933 did Judge John M. Woolsey determine that Ulysses was "an amazing tour de force" and not pornography. ) In 1928 the police raided Roth's Greenwich Village headquarters and confiscated the plates of Ulysses that had been smuggled in from Paris. Roth was arrested and sentenced to sixty days in jail. This was the first of Roth's nine arrests and six convictions for violating anti-obscenity statutes. In 1930 both he and his wife, Pauline, were convicted for distributing D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterly's Lover. And in 1936, Roth began a three-year term in the federal penitentiary at Lewisburg, Pa. , for sending through the mails an unsavory work, reputedly written by a sixteenth-century sheik. In June 1955, Roth testified before Senator Estes Kefauver's subcommittee on juvenile delinquency. He maintained that pornography was not responsible for causing juvenile crime. He also told the subcommittee: "Our language is the source of our power as a people. From it sprung the Magna Charta and the Common Law. As my part of this great tradition, I want freedom of speech as a publisher. " The echoes of the First Amendment were prophetic. In 1956, Roth was again arrested after bringing out Aubrey Beardsley's illustrated tale of Venus and Tannhauser. Once more, the offense was sending obscene literature through the mails. Assistant District Attorney of New York George S. Leisure labeled Roth as "one of the biggest dealers in obscenity in the nation. " After a nine-day trial in New York City ending January 13, 1956, the jury deliberated ten hours and found Roth guilty. On February 5, Judge John M. Cashin of the Federal District Court of New York handed down the maximum sentence, five years in prison and a fine of $5, 000. Roth then took his case to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, maintaining that the federal statute on obscenity was unconstitutional. His appeal, however, was denied. In 1957 the case of Roth v. the United States was heard before the Supreme Court. Roth's defense was that the anti-obscenity statute violated the First Amendment. His attorneys argued his conviction was indeed "abridging the freedom of speech or of the press. " In a five-to-four decision, the Court rejected Roth's plea. The majority opinion held that material was obscene if "to the average person, applying contemporary community standards, the dominant theme of the material taken as a whole appeals to prurient interest. " His appeal turned down, Roth served the full five years in prison. Yet harsh as his sentence was, his case actually liberalized the definition of obscenity. "Contemporary community standards" vary; the material's "dominant theme" must be "taken as a whole"; and the material must appeal to "prurient interest. " Samuel Roth died in New York City.

Samuel Roth

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Background

Samuel Roth was born in a small village in the Carpathian Mountains in Austria-Hungary, the son of Joseph and Adele Roth. In 1903 the Roth family crossed the Atlantic in steerage and settled on the teeming Lower East Side in New York City. His father ran a small business manufacturing pants.

Education

After being expelled from Townsend Harris High School for reading liberal philosophy, Samuel Roth continued his education on his own with daily visits to the New York Public Library. Later he attended Columbia University for a year on scholarship.

Career

Roth wrote poetry and stories for the Jewish Child, the Menorah Journal, and other Yiddish periodicals. In 1914, Roth published his first book of poetry, New Songs of Zion. While a student at Columbia University, Roth began a magazine of contemporary poetry called the Lyric. Among the contributors were the then-unknown D. H. Lawrence and Archibald MacLeish.

Later Roth opened the Poetry Bookshop in Greenwich Village. The shop became a favorite haunt of such poets and writers as Sholem Asch, Stephen Vincent Benet, Frank Harris, and Edna St. Vincent Millay. In 1917, Roth also published another book of poems, First Offering. At the close of World War I, Roth was given a short-lived assignment as a correspondent in England for the New York Herald. While overseas he came into contact with the avant-garde writings that would shape his later career.

When he returned to New York, Roth published Two Worlds, a quarterly magazine that serialized parts of James Joyce's still incomplete novel, Finnegans Wake. Despite protestations of innocence, Roth apparently had neither sought nor gained Joyce's permission to print this work in progress. Joyce struck back with an unflattering reference to Roth toward the end of the novel: "Rothim! . With his unique hornbook and his prince of the apauper's pride, blundering all over the two worlds. "

Although it was not illegal to pirate foreign works in 1925--the United States had not yet signed the International Copyright Agreement--it certainly was unethical. On the one hand, Roth was exposing Americans to an important experiment in fiction; on the other hand, he was not paying for the privilege. In July 1926, Roth repeated the offense. In Two Worlds, now a monthly, he started printing excerpts from James Joyce's Ulysses. The novelist complained about this unauthorized use of his work through his publisher in Paris. But Roth continued to print excerpts, fourteen in all, through October 1927. This time Joyce sought legal redress. He also organized an international protest intent on making this a test case of American copyright law. A document of protest against the unauthorized use of Joyce's work was signed by 167 artists and writers. Even a partial listing (Sherwood Anderson, Benedetto Croce, T. S. Eliot, Andre Gide, Ernest Hemingway, D. H. Lawrence, Thomas Mann, Sean O'Casey, Bertrand Russell, Paul Valery, H. G. Wells, Virginia Woolf, William Butler Yeats) reads like a literary Who's Who of the twentieth century.

In publishing Ulysses, Roth ran afoul of the law because the work was considered obscene by the United States government. (Not until 1933 did Judge John M. Woolsey determine that Ulysses was "an amazing tour de force" and not pornography. ) In 1928 the police raided Roth's Greenwich Village headquarters and confiscated the plates of Ulysses that had been smuggled in from Paris. Roth was arrested and sentenced to sixty days in jail. This was the first of Roth's nine arrests and six convictions for violating anti-obscenity statutes.

In 1930 both he and his wife, Pauline, were convicted for distributing D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterly's Lover. And in 1936, Roth began a three-year term in the federal penitentiary at Lewisburg, Pa. , for sending through the mails an unsavory work, reputedly written by a sixteenth-century sheik.

In June 1955, Roth testified before Senator Estes Kefauver's subcommittee on juvenile delinquency. He maintained that pornography was not responsible for causing juvenile crime. He also told the subcommittee: "Our language is the source of our power as a people. From it sprung the Magna Charta and the Common Law. As my part of this great tradition, I want freedom of speech as a publisher. " The echoes of the First Amendment were prophetic. In 1956, Roth was again arrested after bringing out Aubrey Beardsley's illustrated tale of Venus and Tannhauser. Once more, the offense was sending obscene literature through the mails. Assistant District Attorney of New York George S. Leisure labeled Roth as "one of the biggest dealers in obscenity in the nation. " After a nine-day trial in New York City ending January 13, 1956, the jury deliberated ten hours and found Roth guilty. On February 5, Judge John M. Cashin of the Federal District Court of New York handed down the maximum sentence, five years in prison and a fine of $5, 000.

Roth then took his case to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, maintaining that the federal statute on obscenity was unconstitutional. His appeal, however, was denied. In 1957 the case of Roth v. the United States was heard before the Supreme Court. Roth's defense was that the anti-obscenity statute violated the First Amendment. His attorneys argued his conviction was indeed "abridging the freedom of speech or of the press. " In a five-to-four decision, the Court rejected Roth's plea. The majority opinion held that material was obscene if "to the average person, applying contemporary community standards, the dominant theme of the material taken as a whole appeals to prurient interest. " His appeal turned down, Roth served the full five years in prison. Yet harsh as his sentence was, his case actually liberalized the definition of obscenity. "Contemporary community standards" vary; the material's "dominant theme" must be "taken as a whole"; and the material must appeal to "prurient interest. " Samuel Roth died in New York City.

Achievements

Samuel Roth was the plaintiff in Roth v. United States, which was a key Supreme Court ruling on freedom of sexual expression. The minority opinion, regarding redeeming social value as a criterion in obscenity prosecutions, became a template for the liberalizing First Amendment decisions of the 1960s. Samuel Roth was also a writer, a translator, and an editor. His works were numerous, if second-rate. He wrote "The Peep-Hole of the Present", a work of science fiction; "Bumarap", a novel; as well as books of poetry. Under the pseudonym of Norman Lockridge, Roth edited an anthology, "A Golden Treasury of the World's Wit and Wisdom".