National Organization for Decent Literature

{{short description|Defunct American moral pressure group}}

The National Organization for Decent Literature was an American pressure group active in campaigning for the censorship of literature. A successor organization to the National Legion of Decency, it was largely led by Roman Catholic priests.{{Cite journal| last1 = O'Connor | first1 = T. F. | title = The National Organization for Decent Literature: A Phase in American Catholic Censorship | jstor = 4309066 | journal = The Library Quarterly | volume = 65 | issue = 4 | pages = 386–414 | year = 1995 | doi = 10.1086/602821| s2cid = 145791000 }} The NODL was founded in 1938, and ran until the late 1960s.{{cite web|url=http://libraries.cua.edu/achrcua/ncwc.html#DecentLit|title=NCWC Description: Decent Literature, Episcopal Committee on/National Office for Decent Literature|publisher=University Libraries, The Catholic University of America|date=April 22, 2010|accessdate=2010-07-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100610071737/http://libraries.cua.edu/achrcua/ncwc.html#DecentLit|archive-date=June 10, 2010|url-status=dead|df=mdy-all}} It campaigned against pulp magazines, comic books and what its leaders saw as indecent literature in general.

The organization periodically published lists of "Publications Disapproved". Works on these lists were widely eschewed by booksellers and distributors. Among the disapproved works were those by respected literary figures such as James T. Farrell, William Faulkner, and Edmund Wilson.Rorty, James. “The Harassed Pocket-Book Publishers.” The Antioch Review, vol. 15, no. 4, 1955, pp. 411–427. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4609825. Accessed 4 May 2021.

In March 1942 it put Sensation Comics on its blacklist of Publications Disapproved for Youth for one reason: Wonder Woman was not sufficiently dressed.Smithsonian magazine, October 2014, pg. 60