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3 unusual facts about John Cleland


Guy W. Calissi

In a 1964 case that was later overturned, Calissi placed a ban on the sale of the John Cleland book Fanny Hill in New Jersey.

John Cleland

Josiah Beckwith in 1781 said, after meeting him, that it was "no wonder" that he was supposed a "sodomite." Cleland died unmarried in 1789 and was buried in St. Margaret's churchyard in London.

Morris Pashman

In a 1964 decision, Pashman upheld Bergen County prosecutor Guy W. Calissi's decision to ban the sale of the John Cleland book Fanny Hill in New Jersey, calling the book "sufficiently obscene to forfeit the protection of the First Amendment of the Constitution."


Memoirs v. Massachusetts

The book in question in this case was Fanny Hill (or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, 1749) by John Cleland and the Court held in Memoirs v. Massachusetts that, while it might fit the first two criteria (it appealed to prurient interest and was patently offensive), it could not be proven that Fanny Hill had no redeeming social value.


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