Rosset to Attend Winthrop Forum On Henry Miller

Henry Miller, the Tropic of Cancer, and the recent court decision banning the book in Massachusetts will be the topics of discussion at a special Winthrop House Forum next week.

Barney Rosset, the controversial publisher of the controversial book that has caused 14 trials and over 50 arrests throughout the country the past few months heads the list of participants who will meet in the Winthrop dining hall at 8:30 p.m. Monday night. He will be accompanied by Charles J. Rembar '35, legal counsel for Grove Press. Inc., of which Rosset is president.

David Littlejohn, teaching fellow in English who has organized the forum, will act as moderator.

Also included in the program will be a psychiatrist, an etymologist, a minister, a novelist, and the attorney who argued for the United States before the Supreme Court in the off-cited Roth Case of 1957 (which gave the federal courts the most modern definition of obscenity).

Chance to Give Views

Leon N. Shapiro '46, instructor in psychiatry at the Medical School, will offer his views on the psychological effects and possible incitements that result from such (allegedly) obscene works as Miller's. (Shapiro, a witness for the defense in the Massachusetts trial, could not testify because the court held that he would not be "applying contemporary community standards" but merely expressing personal opinions).

Providing linguistic-historical comments on the hush-hush Anglo-Saxon words which occur with distinct regulari- ty in Cancer will be Morton Bloomfield, professor of English. The minister who will participate is Robert W. Haney '56, author of Comstockery in America, who is associated with the First Unitarian Church of Boston.

Bloomfield and Haney both testified for the defense in the Massachusetts trial; with Shapiro, they should provide considerable support for Miller and his book.

Novelist John C. Hawkes '47, too, should help to strengthen the pro-Miller leanings of the panel. Known for his literary psycho-sexual fantasies, Hawkes has written, among others, the much- heralded The Cannibal and, most recently, The Lime Twig.

On the other side of the fence--and without reticence--is Roger D. Fisher '43, professor of Law, who is an expert on the law of obscenity. Besides his work on the Roth case, Fisher has given advice on several issues to the Massachusetts Obscene Literature Control Commission.

"My basic views," Fisher explained yesterday, "are that Grove Press has been capitalizing commercially on obscenity and the difficult problem of balancing social interest. Acting as civil libertarians, they try to make the issue simpler than it really is, and give answers that don't really help.

"They fail to meet the real problem-- who should decide where the line should be drawn, and how."

With Fisher in the midst of Rosset and other pro-Millerites, it could be a very interesting evening