When the editors of the Chicago Review obtained excerpts from The Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs (then unpublished in the U.S.) and published them in the Spring and Autumn, 1958 editions of the magazine, an editorial titled “Filthy Writing on the Midway” by reporter Jack Mabley appeared on the front page of the Chicago Daily News, and the University Chancellor halted publication of the third installment in the Winter 1959 edition, and demanded the removal of any material that might be deemed obscene. All but one of the editorial staff, led by Irving Rosenthal and Paul Carroll, resigned in protest. Rosenthal and Carroll then went on to start Big Table (the title was suggested by Kerouac via telegram: “CALL IT BIG TABLE”) with the material—as is printed on the cover of Big Table 1—from “…the suppressed Winter 1959 Chicago Review.” 400 copies of the magazine, mailed to subscribers, were then seized and impounded by the Chicago Post Office, and deemed “obscene and filthy…it has no redeeming value.” With the help of the ACLU, Rosenthal and Carroll sued the Post Office in the District Court of Chicago, where Judge Julius Hoffman ruled it not obscene.
Though short-lived, with only five editions of Big Table published, the magazine was a major influence in modern American literature. As Thomas Pynchon described it, “‘what happened at Chicago’ became shorthand for some unimaginable subversive threat” among literature students at Cornell University. Rosenthal left after the first issue of the magazine, while Carroll continued for the duration of its publication.
Big Table – Complete Set (Vols. 1-5)
$625.00
All 5 volumes of Big Table
Softcover, very good condition, with covers wrapped in protective plastic jackets.
1 in stock
Description
When the editors of the Chicago Review obtained excerpts from The Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs (then unpublished in the U.S.) and published them in the Spring and Autumn, 1958 editions of the magazine, an editorial titled “Filthy Writing on the Midway” by reporter Jack Mabley appeared on the front page of the Chicago Daily News, and the University Chancellor halted publication of the third installment in the Winter 1959 edition, and demanded the removal of any material that might be deemed obscene. All but one of the editorial staff, led by Irving Rosenthal and Paul Carroll, resigned in protest. Rosenthal and Carroll then went on to start Big Table (the title was suggested by Kerouac via telegram: “CALL IT BIG TABLE”) with the material—as is printed on the cover of Big Table 1—from “…the suppressed Winter 1959 Chicago Review.” 400 copies of the magazine, mailed to subscribers, were then seized and impounded by the Chicago Post Office, and deemed “obscene and filthy…it has no redeeming value.” With the help of the ACLU, Rosenthal and Carroll sued the Post Office in the District Court of Chicago, where Judge Julius Hoffman ruled it not obscene.
Though short-lived, with only five editions of Big Table published, the magazine was a major influence in modern American literature. As Thomas Pynchon described it, “‘what happened at Chicago’ became shorthand for some unimaginable subversive threat” among literature students at Cornell University. Rosenthal left after the first issue of the magazine, while Carroll continued for the duration of its publication.
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