A Book Named "John Cleland's Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure" v. Attorney General of Massachusetts

*415This is an obscenity case in which Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (commonly known as Fanny Hill), written by John Cleland in about 1750, was adjudged obscene in a proceeding that put on trial the book itself, and not its publisher or distributor. The proceeding was a civil equity suit brought by the Attorney General of Massachusetts, pursuant to General Laws of Massachusetts, Chapter 272, §§ 28C-28H, to have the book declared obscene.1 Section 28C requires that the petition commencing the suit be “directed against [the] book by name” and that an order to show cause “why said book should not…