Case studies in censorship: William Faulkner's Sanctuary

When William Faulkner sent off his manuscript of Sanctuary in 1929 to the publisher Cape and Smith, Harrison Smith responded, “Good God, I can't publish this. We'd both be in jail.” From its very inception, Sanctuary, Faulkner's shocking novel of a young co‐ed initiated through rape and murder into the criminal world of hoodlums, was controversial. When Smith sent Faulkner the galleys, the author decided to revise the manuscript. This revised version of Sanctuary, published in 1931, went on to become his most scandalous and, not coincidentally, his best selling work. While The Sound and the Fury and Light in August languished and went out of print, the horrific tale of Temple Drake and the gangster/thug, Popeye, generated sustained sales as well as a flurry of popular interest in the young writer from Mississippi.