Sir Cyril Black

the long version

Controversial book in its time! Here's some background. Six years after publication, Sir Cyril Black caused something of a stir when Olympia Press/Ophelia Press publisher Maurice Girodias, his partner David Young, and Lambert became the defendants in a libel case heard in the New York Supreme Court. The real Sir Cyril Black, a Member of Parliament and champion of press censorship, bought a copy of the Olympia Press edition believing it to be a biography. Finding it to be otherwise, he wrote in a press release that it "consisted of a pornographic novel in which the principal character was named Sir Cyril Black, portrayed as a most evil person engaged in perversions of various kinds, and guilty of practices of an unspeakable nature." Black sued the Olympia Press, winning a public apology and $100,000, which he announced he would donate to charity.