Edward de Grazia
Edward Richard de Grazia (February 5, 1927 – April 11, 2013) was an American lawyer, writer, and free speech activist.[1]
De Grazia was born in Chicago.Benjamin Cardozo School of Law, where he remained for the next three decades.[2]
De Grazia was married three times, to Ellen O'Connor, Liz Goode, and Lora Price.[1] He had several children, including Augustus de Grazia (died 2011),[2] David de Grazia, Christophe de Grazia, Belinda de Grazia Holtzclaw, and Elizabeth de Grazia Blumenfeld.[1]
De Grazia was involved in numerous high-profile cases of literary and artistic censorship in the 1960s, including several on behalf of the publisher
Armies of the Night (1968).[2] In 1991 he published Girls Lean Back Everywhere: The Law of Obscenity and the Assault on Genius, a lengthy and authoritative history of the struggle against literary censorship.[2]
Significant cases litigated
- Postal Service censorship of Lysistrata (1955)[3]
- Grove Press v. Gerstein (1964), censorship of Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer (1934), decided with Jacobellis v. Ohio
- 1965 - censorship of William S. Burroughs' Naked Lunch (1959)
- 1967 censorship of film I Am Curious (Yellow) (1967)
- Defense of Lenny Bruce
Bibliography
- Censorship Landmarks (1969)
- Banned Films (with Roger Newman) (1982)
- Girls Lean Back Everywhere: The Law of Obscenity and the Assault on Genius (1991)
References
- ^ a b c d Douglas Martin, "Edward de Grazia, Lawyer Who Fought Censorship of Books, Is Dead at 86" (obituary), The New York Times, April 24, 2013.
- ^ a b c d e f g Matt Schudel, "Edward de Grazia, lawyer and free-speech advocate, dies at 86" (obituary), The Washington Post, April 20, 2013
- ^ "Suit Asks U.S. Lift 'Lysistrata' Ban", The New York Times, March 6, 1955.
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