Anthony Comstock

Anthony Comstock , 1844-1915, American morals crusader, b. New Canaan, Conn. He served with the Union army in the Civil War and was later active as an antiabortionist and in advocating the suppression of obscene literature. He was the author of the comprehensive New York state statute (1868) forbidding immoral works, and in 1873 he secured stricter federal postal legislation against obscene matter. That same year he organized the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice. As secretary of the society until his death, Comstock was responsible for the destruction of 160 tons of literature and pictures. For his liberal enemies he became the symbol of licensed bigotry and for his supporters the symbol of stalwart defense of conventional morals. Comstock also inspired the Watch and Ward Society of Boston.

Bibliography: See biographies by H. Broun and M. Leech (1927) and De Robinge Bennett (repr. 1971).

Comstock, Anthony (1844–1915), was head of a YMCA campaign against obscene literature, special agent for the Post Office Department, founder of the Society for Suppression of Vice, and a leader of Boston's Watch and Ward Society. He was the father of the so‐called Comstock law (1873) to exclude vicious matter from the mails. In his various campaigns, he caused the arrest of more than 3000 persons and destroyed 50 tons of books, 28,400 pounds of stereotyped plates for printing objectionable books, and nearly 4,000,000 pictures. He wrote several books on immorality in art and literature. Anthony Comstock: Roundsman of the Lord (1927) is a biography by Heywood Broun and Margaret Leech.