Literature suppressed on sexual grounds

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Laura Wittern-Keller and Raymond J. Haberski Jr

Although initially approved by state censors for screening in New York, Roberto Rossellini's Il Miracolo (The Miracle)--about a demented peasant woman who is seduced by a stranger she believes to be Saint Joseph--was attacked as sacrilegious by the Catholic establishment, which convinced state officials to revoke distributor Burstyn's license. In response, Burstyn fought back through the courts and won. The Supreme Court's unanimous 1952 ruling in Burstyn's favor sparked a chain of litigation that eventually brought filmmaking under the protective umbrella of the First Amendment.

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Amanda Quick

Targeted by a disabled former spy for the Crown who wrongly believes she is blackmailing his sister, Beatrice Lockwood offers her assistance in tracking down the real culprit and eventually falls for the spy only to find herself hunted by a mad scientist who would resurrect a dead lover.

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Eric C. Schneider

They called themselves "Vampires," "Dragons," and "Egyptian Kings." They were divided by race, ethnicity, and neighborhood boundaries, but united by common styles, slang, and codes of honor. They fought - and sometimes killed - to protect and expand their territories. In postwar New York, youth gangs were a colorful and controversial part of the urban landscape, made famous by West Side Story and infamous by the media. This is the first historical study to explore fully the culture of these gangs. Eric Schneider takes us into a world of switchblades and slums, zoot suits and bebop music to explain why youth gangs emerged, how they evolved, and why young men found membership and the violence it involved so attractive. Schneider focuses on the years from 1940 to 1975, but takes us up to the present in his conclusion, showing how youth gangs are no longer social organizations but economic units tied to the underground economy.

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Jonny Steinberg

"In his latest book, Little Liberia: An African Odyssey in New York, Steinberg takes us to Park Hill Avenue on Staten Island, where a community of Liberians have made their home. Through interviews and shadowing of two community leaders, Steinberg strives to understand the peculiarities of this community; while it appears at times as if a piece of Liberia has been sliced off and dropped in New York, the Park Hill community is ravaged by conflict between different interest groups. To understand what is going on in 2008 New York, Steinberg travels back - back to Liberia and back to the country's tragic recent history of civil war, military coups and mass exterminations. The story of Liberia is a gruesome and miserable one but Steinberg's empathy for his subjects never allows the narrative to descend into voyeurism. The combination of hard nosed investigative journalism, a gift for storytelling and an obvious empathy for the characters that he shadows makes Steinberg an author who demands to be read, whatever the subject matter. A brilliant and important book which will delight Steinberg's thousands of followers and doubtless earn him many more"--Book Lounge.