I was wild. My fantasies were wild. She remembered having dinner with her agent, Claire Smith, and Smith's husband in Brooklyn, after both the Smiths had read a draft of Wifey. Everyone was so scandalized by it. But [Claire] was not so scandalized so that she wouldn't sell it. A lot of people wanted me to change my name, warning me I would ruin my lovely career if I published this under my own name.
In 1921, Anderson was prosecuted by the U.S. government-the novel was thought "obscene"-and though Morgan focusses much of his attention on her trial, he also takes in her childhood, in Indianapolis; her years in Chicago, New York, and Paris; and her association with prominent figures of her time, such as Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot, and the anarchist Emma Goldman.
Morrison's debut novel, published in 1970, addresses racism, beauty standards, child abuse and sexual abuse through the eyes of 11-year-old Pecola in the years after the Great Depression. The novel was listed among the top 10 most banned books of 2024 by the American Library Association. The book was challenged in the Bonita Unified School District in 2023, but the school board decided to keep it on shelves.