Mailer Reading Halted
Unsigned New York Times report on the 6 February 1961 incident at the 92nd Street Y.M.H.A. — an administrator ordered the curtain down on Mailer's reading for poems judged obscene. Mailer answered, 'an administrator is no judge of literature.' Allen Ginsberg, in the audience, defended Mailer.
“Mailer Reading Halted.” Article by unidentified writer. New York Times, 7 February 1961.
An official at the 92nd Street Y.M.H.A. ordered the curtain down on Mailer at his 6 February reading for what he found obscene in some of the poems. Mailer answered that “an administrator is no judge of literature.” Allen Ginsberg was in the audience and defended Mailer.