Can you help to describe the events, people, etc, surrounding Lolita (the book) NOT being banned in the US?

I was going to Catholic school when the book was published and the Pope or whoever is in charge put it on the condemned list. That being the case made it imperative that I find a copy. I found one, read it and was bored.

In the mid fifties I was in grade school and Catholic and conservative theology determined what ended up in the public libraries and in some respects on the bookshelves of retail shops. Of course it was easy to shock us. The most shock books I read were written by Robert Heinlein. I like them much more than Lolita.

Here’s a review from The Atlantic 1958. Gives you the attitude of one person of the time anyways.

Have they ever banned books in the US? I am not familiar with the book you’re talking about, but freedom of speech is pretty essential to what we’re all about isn’t it?

Quite a number of books have been banned in the US: check this and related sites. Some bans make little sense, such as Ulysses by James Joyce; Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. Ulysses is difficult to read (although not as difficult as Finnegans Wake). You can waste time looking for the dirty parts, if you are that way inclined. Huckleberry Finn has attracted bans because of its free use of the word “nigger.” Richard Wright wrote an interesting essay on the use of the n-word in “Huckleberry Finn”, which I have not traced; but look at this site. It is interesting, and shocking, that so many black students find this novel offensive.

The case of Wilhelm Reich is absolutely fascinating!
The last scientist to be censored in the 20th century. Here is a brief trailer for the movie “Who’s Afraid of Wilhelm Reich?”, partly in English, partly in German about the history of it. He was arrested by the FBI and the burning of his work and his journals in 1956 was the largest in US history.

Here some key US legal decisions about censorship and obscenity.

Another good essay on the history of Lolita

Lolita 30 years Later

I’ve never read it, but from what I understand, it lacks any truly explicit content and therefore cannot be considered obscene, which exempts it from being banned. Apparently, it is much more of a satire than it is erotic, the basic premise being the most controversial thing about it, and once people sat down and read it, they realized this. The Church would still be upset, I figure, because it not only promotes relations out of wedlock by a divorced man, but it promotes these relations with young girls, which is taboo in general.