Charles Albert Oberwager
Charles Albert Oberwager (June 20, 1882 - July 17, 1945) was a lawyer and later a judge in Manhattan who presided over the case of the publication of Satyricon in 1922, ruling it was a classic book and not a pornographic book.[1][2]
Biography[edit]
He was born on June 20, 1882. He attended New York University and graduated with an LL.B. in 1908. He married Anna Mariash on June 30, 1912.[3]
As a judge he presided over the case of the publication of Satyricon and its condemnation by John Saxton Sumner of the Society for the Suppression of Vice. His 1922 ruling declared it was a classic and not pornographic.[4][1][5] In 1926 he ruled that "women shouldn't roll their stockings down in public" and ordered a woman be put in detention for three months.[6]
In 1932 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Law by Atlantic University.[7]
He died in Southampton, New York, on July 17, 1945.[8] His widow died in 1987.[3]
Footnotes[edit]
- ^ a b "Correspondent of Vice Society Suggests Magistrate May Have Been Misled. Oberwager in Reply Stands By His Decision Holding Petronius a Classic". The New York Times. October 8, 1922. Retrieved 2013-11-25.
- ^ "Censor Again Loses In Fight On Books. Vice Society's Complaint Against 'Satyricon' Thrown Out by Magistrate. Literary Value Is Upheld. Oberwager Declares Condemnation Because of Slight Obscenity Would Doom Even Bible" (PDF). The New York Times. September 28, 1922. Retrieved 2013-11-25.
- ^ a b "Anna Oberwager". The New York Times. September 11, 1987. Retrieved 2013-11-25.
- ^ Judge Charles A. Oberwager's decision rendered in the Magistrate's Court of the City of New York in dismissing the complaint of Mr. Summer ... against Boni & Liveright, who were charged ... for publishing The Satyricon of Petronius Arbiter. 1922. OCLC 220044401. Retrieved 2013-11-25.
- ^ Dawn B. Sova (2006). Literature Suppressed on Sexual Grounds. Infobase Publishing. p. 206.
Oberwager Satyricon.
- ^ John D. Stevens (writer) (1991). Sensationalism and the New York Press. ISBN 9780231073967.
- ^ "To Honor Judge Oberwager Today". The New York Times. October 23, 1931. Retrieved 2013-11-25.
- ^ "New York, State Death Index, 1880-1956", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QG2T-PD2W : 20 October 2019), Charles A Oberwager, 1945.
