Myra Breckinridge - book cover
When Gore Vidal’s Myra Breckinridge was published in 1968, it caused ructions among critics and the establishment across the world. Its themes were transsexuality, feminism and sexual practices that the world couldn’t quite deal with, even in the Swinging Sixties. Some critics regarded the novel as nothing more than pornographic – and as a result, of course, it became a global best-seller.
Here in the UK, the book (dedicated, incidentally, to Christopher Isherwood) was heavily censored. But cannily, Vidal allowed its publication to go ahead – so long as the censored text was replaced by blank spaces. The publisher, Anthony Blond, agreed, and as a result the book became available to British readers. A brief foreword, dripping in sarcasm, states, “Wanting in every way to adapt to the high moral climate that currently envelops the British Isles, the author has allowed certain excisions to be made in the American text”.
I have a copy of that edition. This is the book cover… and here is a typical page of censored text, which literally ends mid-sentence.
Myra Breckinridge - book cover
When Gore Vidal’s Myra Breckinridge was published in 1968, it caused ructions among critics and the establishment across the world. Its themes were transsexuality, feminism and sexual practices that the world couldn’t quite deal with, even in the Swinging Sixties. Some critics regarded the novel as nothing more than pornographic – and as a result, of course, it became a global best-seller.
Here in the UK, the book (dedicated, incidentally, to Christopher Isherwood) was heavily censored. But cannily, Vidal allowed its publication to go ahead – so long as the censored text was replaced by blank spaces. The publisher, Anthony Blond, agreed, and as a result the book became available to British readers. A brief foreword, dripping in sarcasm, states, “Wanting in every way to adapt to the high moral climate that currently envelops the British Isles, the author has allowed certain excisions to be made in the American text”.
I have a copy of that edition. This is the book cover… and here is a typical page of censored text, which literally ends mid-sentence.