AustLit

Creator of the Mike Hammer series, by 1980 US writer Mickey Spillane's novels numbered among the top 15 best-selling US novels of all time. Spillane's hugely popular crime and detective thrillers were banned in Australia from 1951 to 1971. His very first book, I The Jury, which sold an estimated six and a half million copies in the US alone, was recommended for release by the Literature Censorship Board but banned by the Minister in July 1951. From then on, Spillane's novels were banned by Customs without reference to the Board. The Mike Hammer novels Kiss Me Deadly, One Lonely Night, The Big Kill, Vengeance is Mine and My Gun is Quick were all banned by 1953 and between 1954 and 1965 their French and Italian translations too. Known for higher levels of sex and violence, Spillane's Tiger Mann series was banned in the 1960s, including the titles A Bloody Sunrise and The Death Dealers, as well as The Seven Year Kill, The Flier, The Snake, Day of the Guns and others. More than 22 Spillane titles were banned over a twenty-year period. Many were gradually released from 1967, but an appeal from the publisher Gordon and Gotch to have The Girl Hunters and The Big Kill released in 1969 was refused (Source NAA C4129).