From the Archives 61: Memoirs of Fanny Hill: Unexpurgated Dramatization of the Famous and Classic Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, Part 2 (1963)

Ipse Dixit

In 1748, the English writer John Cleland published the novel "Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure," popularly known as "Fanny Hill." Cleland wrote the novel while he was confined in a London debtor's prison, and it is considered the first pornographic novel. Fanny Hill is an "epistolary novel," consisting of two letters from Fanny Hill to an unnamed friend, describing her youth as a prostitute.

Fanny Hill was banned in England the year after it was published, but illicit editions soon appeared, and found their way to the United States. In 1821, Massachusetts banned the novel, and the Massachusetts Supreme Court affirmed its suppression.

In 1963, Putnam published Fanny Hill as "John Cleland's Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure." New York State Supreme Court Judge Arthur G. Klein held that it was not obscene under the Supreme Court's Roth test, but a Massachusetts court disagreed. Putnam challenged the Massachusetts ruling, and the Supreme Court eventually held that Fanny Hill was not obscene under the Roth standard in A Book Named "John Cleland's Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure", et al. v. Attorney General of Massachusetts (1966).

In 1963, Recorded Literature, Inc. also published "Memoirs of Fanny Hill: Unexpurgated Dramatization of the Famous and Classic Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure" a 2xLP dramatic reading of Fanny Hill, performed by Pamela Hayes Marshall, Felicia Peters, Marcia Gatsby, and Audrey Long. It appears that the names of the performers were all pseudonyms. The gatefold of the album liberally from Klein's opinion finding the book not obscene. Unsurprisingly, this "unexpurgated" version of Fanny Hill was edited to focus on only the most prurient parts of the story.

This is the track list for part 2:

• Abduction Of Charles
• The Landlady's Offer
• Incident With Mr. H.
• Affair With Will

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