In answer to Susan Mooney, let me point out that Girodias' little book is available at the Library of Congress. It is a thin little book containing
- a translation of Nabokov's "On a Book Entitled Lolita"
- Girodias' article "L'affaire Lolita" (a historical approach to censorship with reference, among other things, to Ulysses)
- various letters and legal texts regarding Lolita and other cases
- an interesting article by a lawyer, Daniel Bécourt, on "L'outrages aux moeurs"
- plus various short texts on censorship.

Since I published my book on censorship, Roman et censure ou la mauvaise foi d'Eros, (Seyssel: Champ Vallon, 1996), I have had a long discussion with Jean-Jacques Pauvert who worked closely with Girodias in the fifties and himself was subjected to censorship for publishing de Sade's works. He is probably one of the most knowledgeable people in France at the moment on censorship in the fifties. One of his lattest books, Nouveau et moins nouveaux visages de la censure (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1994), contains very useful information, though it does not specifically deal with Lolita.Girodias' autobiography, Une journée sur la terre (2 vols: paris: Editions de la différence, 1990) is of much interest, too.

MAURICE Couturier

Donald Barton Johnson wrote:

From: Susan Mooney <kboterbloem@sympatico.ca>
        I have been researching the censorship of Lolita, and know M.
Couturier's fine work, B. Boyd and Edward de Grazia
provide excellent points also on the difficult publication history of
this novel. However, I am trying to determine in greater detail the
censorious machinations of politicians and government officials in Gr.
Britain and France.
        This is, thus, my problem. I have been waiting for almost 3
months for interlibrary loans to locate and bring me a copy of Girodias's
_L'affaire Lolita_, and I'm sure it will provide me with some more
information. But I am hoping to find someone who has done some actual
archival research into this matter, and it seems that thus far there is
nothing of that kind.
        I have tried search engines, but the inclusion of "lolita" harvests an
awfully numerous listing of pornographic listings, so it is of little
practical use to look for this particular case in this way. I've kept
up to date with the MLA's silver platter listings -- there of course
it's quite safe and quick to make the appropriate subject searches.