Elmer Gantry was banned in several cities—in Boston, selling it was made an indictable offense, as opposed to just a misdemeanor, as an indication of how severely disagreeable it was—but of course such prohibitions merely made the book seem more juicily desirable to those who could get it. The novel sold 100,000 copies on its first day of sale, and was cruising toward 250,000 by the end of summer—numbers that not even Grey and Burroughs could count on.
