March 3: The Comstock Laws were passed on this day in 1873. This criminalized the use of the U.S. Postal Service to send any of the following items: obscenity, contraceptives, abortifacients, sex toys, personal letters with any sexual content or information or any information regarding the above items. And this was 1873. Anthony Comstock was not the only self-appointed policeman of what should be regarded as decent. Thomas Bowdler (1754-1825) thought the writings of Shakespeare were often too lurid and offensive, so he set out to clean them up in his work "The Family Shakespeare." He removed all those words “...which cannot with propriety be read aloud in a family” or which are “...unfit to be read aloud by a gentleman to a company of ladies.” Carry Nation (1846–1911) had a hatred for the "demon alcohol" so she went to saloons with a hatchet to smash as many bottles as she could.
See also: Who Really Wrote Shakespeare's Plays? 50 Books on CDrom
https://thebookshelf2015.blogspot.com/2015/09/who-really-wrote-shakespeares-plays-50.html
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