Censorship happens

MONDAY, JUNE 8 — Almost 90 years after it was banned in the U.S. for obscenity, “What Happens,” a 1926 book by Lansing author John Herrmann, has been re-released.

Valerie Marvin, president of the Historical Society of Greater Lansing, said that Herrmann was a member of the “lost generation,” the post World War I generation that included such authors as T.S. Eliot, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway. Herrmann was friends with Hemingway and a noted radical writer of the 1930s. He was the scion of a successful Lansing family that owned John Herrmann’s Sons, the largest bespoke tailor in the state, which at one time employed 35 tailors in downtown Lansing.

“Herrmann went on to write two other novels and numerous short stories drawing liberally from his experiences growing up in Lansing and using his friends and acquaintances as characters in his writing,” Marvin said.

Hastings College Press of Nebraska has put “What Happens” into print for the first time in 89 years, and the Historical Society of Greater Lansing and the Library of Michigan will honor Herrmann Thursday with an event celebrating the re-release.

Randy Riley, state librarian, said that the confiscation of “What Happens” and the resulting obscenity trial is an important part of Michigan literary history.

“The obscenity trial was one of the first major tests of community standards and what’s obscene,” Riley said. “’What Happens’ was defended by Morris Ernst, who would become a noted free speech expert and one of the founders of ACLU.”

“What Happens,” a coming-of-age story set in a fictional version of Lansing, was first published in Paris in 1926 by an avant-garde publisher, but it was deemed obscene and confiscated when a shipment of books arrived in the U.S. The books were destroyed following the controversial trial. “What Happens” tells the story of Winfield Payne, a young man from a wealthy Michigan family who struggles with his awakening sexuality and fickle affections.

Herrmann is noted for his radical writing and his close association with the U.S. Communist Party figures including Harold “Hal” Ware, Alger Hiss and Whittaker Chambers. He served in the U.S. Coast Guard during World War II and later moved to Mexico where he connected with beat writers, including William Burroughs. He died in 1959.

Sara Kosiba, Herrman biographer and English professor at Troy University in Montgomery, Ala., has written a new introduction for “What Happens.” She will present a lecture on Herrman at Thursday’s event, discussing his close association with Ernest Hemingway and other prominent 20th century writers and his tumultuous marriage to novelist Josephine Herbst, whose novel “Rope of Gold” is semi-autobiographical and partially set in Lansing.

John Herrmann’s work is important, according to Kosiba, for “the way it adds to our understanding of American literature and history.

John Herrmann was a participant in several significant movements in the 20th century, from the famed expatriate literary circle in Paris in the 1920s to the social and political efforts of the 1930s to the Communist hysteria of the late 1940s and 1950s,” Kosiba said. “Herrmann’s life and career provide additional understanding and nuance to these moments and show how a boy from Lansing eventually ended up involved in some of the most interesting and continually debated moments in American history.”

The event is free, books will be for sale. Meet Sara Kosiba, the author of the book’s new foreword, at 6 p.m. with the presentation following at 7 p.m.

“What Happens”

Book release and talk

6 p.m. Thursday, June 11

FREE

Library of Michigan Forum Room

702 W. Kalamazoo St., Lansing lansinghistory.org