Celebrate Banned Books Week 2019 at the Morrill Memorial Library with a program by author Neil Miller, of Tufts University, on Thursday September 26 at 7:00 pm.

First established in 1878, and very much alive into the 1940s and ‘50s, the New England Watch and Ward Society functioned as the region’s “moral guardian.” Funded by Boston first families, the organization banned books and stage productions, raided gambling dens and houses of prostitution, and crusaded against burlesque. Neil Miller, award-winning journalist and author of the book “Banned in Boston,” presents a lively and entertaining talk about the history of censorship in Boston, particularly how the Watch and Ward – and local district attorneys – transformed the “Athens of America” into a national laughing stock. The vice crusaders’ targets ranged from books by now-classic American authors like Hemingway, Faulkner, and Dreiser, to performances of plays by Lillian Hellman and Eugene O’Neill, to Boston’s legendary burlesque house, the Old Howard. Miller, the author of six published nonfiction books, is a lecturer at Tufts University.

Please register for this program by filling out the form below, calling 781-769-0200 x110, or stopping by the Reference or Information desk.