June, 2026

Literature in the first half of the 20^th century is noted for challenging society’s view of morality.  Writers such as James Joyce, D H Lawrence and Radclyffe Hall, along with their bold publishers, pushed the boundaries, fighting increasingly out-dated obscenity laws. While they may have lost early battles in the courts, they eventually, even if years later, won the censorship war.

 

Radclyffe Hall was a pioneer lesbian writer, friend of Colette, George Bernard Shaw, and other leading liberal writers of the time. Her ground-breaking lesbian novel “The Well of Loneliness” was declared obscene in a trial in 1928, and not openly published until 1949.

 

We have for sale a collection of letters, from and to Hall and friends such as her lover Una Troubridge and others including postcards, signed cheques, photographs and other ephemera, letters

 

Also a rare item, Radclyffe Hall's ticket and programme for the opening night the play ’Le Procés d’Oscar Wilde (The Trial of Oscar Wilde) in Paris, 1935. The programme includes photographs and information on the author, cast and theatre personnel, advertisements for Rhum Negrita, and other symbols of the gay 1930s in Paris. 

 

This all gives us a glimpse at those transgressing the moral boundaries of the 1920s and 30s. We owe a debt to these writers. It is at the edges of mainstream art that revolutions are made.