Erotica in Australian libraries : are we negligent collection managers?

• Main Author: Crook, Edgar
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2021
• Subjects: Library and information science
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/152391
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Literary erotica has existed alongside erotic art and sculpture for as long as there has been the capacity to publish or otherwise transmit the written word. In ancient Greece and Rome the writing of erotic poems and stories were an accepted and popular literary form. Later in the Christian west, writers of erotica were to became subject to the Church, censorship and the law, and whilst there was never a period when there was not production of erotic books, their writings were often driven underground. Today there are few libraries that do not have on their shelves books that were once banned or considered obscene. The works of the Earl of Rochester, Boccaccio and Pauline Reage are now widely available. What was once considered obscene has now seemingly become acceptable by its historicism. Although these authors’ and other notable works have survived, comparatively little of the huge amount of privately published erotica has. Some can be found still in private hands, and a little is preserved in libraries…