History's ?Abrupt Revenges?: Censoring War's Perversions inThe Well of LonelinessandSleeveless Errand

Abstract

O, 'n February 21, 1929, Norah James, the advertising and publicity manager at Jonathan Cape's publishing house, was on her way to work when she passed news placard that proclaimed Wom? an's Novel Seized. James did not stop to buy copy of the paper, but she would later discover that it was her first novel, Sleeveless Errand, selling papers that day. The night before, plain-clothes policemen had seized all copies of the book after Eric Partridge, the novel's publisher, unwillingly provided them with list of every bookseller to whom the book had been delivered.1 Thus did Norah James and her novel about the effects of wartime morality find their way onto the front pages and subsequently into the history of British censorship. James's experience neatly replicated that of Radclyffe Hall, whose novel, The Well of Loneli? ness, had been found guilty of obscene libel the previous year. James knew Hall and her ill-fated book well; James had read the manuscript of The Well of Loneliness at Cape's request and found it fine and sincere piece of work. She later attended the Bow Street trial that led to the novel's suppression. Between the time of The WelTs publication and eventual suppression, James saw quite lot of Hall, and the two became friendly. Hall even gave James a handsome cheque when the latter was ill and hard up.2 Despite the casual friendship of the two authors, and despite the eventual fate of their books, The Well of Loneliness and Sleeveless Errand could not be more different. The first pleads for understanding for inverts; the second condemns the promiscuous heterosexual behavior of the novel's protagonist and her set. The WelTs protagonist prays for God's mercy and deliverance; Sleeveless Errand's protagonist uses God and Christ as curse words. Stephen Gordon, HalFs