He was born in
New Canaan, Connecticut. As a young man, he enlisted and fought for the Union in the
American Civil War from
1863 to
1865. He served without incident, but objected to the profanity used by his fellow soldiers. Afterward he became an active worker in the
Young Men's Christian Association in
New York City.
In
1873 Comstock created the
New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, an institution dedicated to supervising the
morality of the public. Later that year, Comstock successfully influenced the
United States Congress to pass the
Comstock Law, which made illegal the delivery or transportation of both "obscene, lewd, or lascivious" material as well as any methods of, or information pertaining to,
birth control. George Bernard Shaw coined the term
comstockery, meaning "censorship because of perceived obscenity or immorality"
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=Comstockery, after Comstock alerted the New York police to the content of Shaw's play
Mrs. Warren's Profession. Shaw remarked that "Comstockery is the world's standing joke at the expense of the United States. Europe likes to hear of such things. It confirms the deep-seated conviction of the Old World that America is a provincial place, a second-rate country-town civilization after all."
Comstock's ideas of what might be "obscene, lewd, or lascivious" were quite broad. During his time of greatest power, even some
anatomy textbooks were prohibited from being sent to medical students by the
United States Postal Service.
Comstock aroused intense loathing from early
civil liberties groups and intense support from
church based groups worried about public morals. He was a savvy political insider in
New York City and was made a special agent of the
United States Postal Service, with police powers up to and including the right to carry a weapon. With this power he zealously prosecuted those he suspected of either public distribution of
pornography or commercial
fraud, his twin obessions. His efforts to suppress public information on
sex education materials and
birth control are now often viewed as misguided and medically irresponsible. He was also involved in shutting down the
Louisiana Lottery, the only legal lottery in the
United States at the time, and notorious for corruption.
Comstock is also known for his persecution of
Victoria Woodhull and
Tennessee Claflin, and those associated with them. The men's journal
The Days Doings had popularised lewd images of the sisters for three years and was instructed by its editor (while Comstock was present) to stop producing images of "lewd character". Comstock also took legal action against the paper for advertising contraceptives. When the sisters published an expose of an adulterous affair between Reverend
Henry Ward Beecher and
Elizabeth Tilton, he had the sisters imprisoned under laws forbidding the use of the postal service to distribute 'obscene material' - though they were later found 'not guilty'.
Less fortunate was
Ida Craddock, who committed suicide on the eve of reporting to Federal prison for distributing via the U.S. Mail various sexually explicit marriage manuals she had authored. Her final work was a lengthy public suicide note specifically condemning Comstock.
Comstock claimed he drove fifteen persons to suicide in his "fight for the young". He was head vice-hunter of the
New York Society for the Suppression of Vice. Comstock, the self-labeled "weeder in God's garden", arrested
D. M. Bennett for publishing his "An Open Letter to Jesus Christ" and later entrapped the editor for mailing a free-love pamphlet. Bennett was prosecuted, subjected to a widely publicized trial, and imprisoned in the Albany Penitentiary.
He had numerous enemies, and in later years his health was affected by a severe blow to the head from an anonymous attacker. He lectured to college audiences and wrote newspaper articles to sustain his causes. Before his death, Comstock attracted the interest of a young law student,
J. Edgar Hoover, interested in his causes and methods.
During his career, Comstock clashed with
Emma Goldman and
Margaret Sanger. In her autobiography, Goldman referred to Comstock as the leader of America's "moral
eunuchs". Through his various campaigns, he caused the arrest of more than 3,000 persons, destroyed 15 tons of books, 284,000 pounds of plates for printing 'objectionable' books, and nearly 4,000,000 pictures.
A biography of Comstock written in 1927, "Anthony Comstock: Roundsman Of The Lord" by
Heywood Broun and
Margaret Leech of the
Algonquin Round Table examines his personal history and his investigative, surveillance and law enforcement techniques.
Photo of Comstock's grave
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