![The Canberra Times' front page on June 27, 1964. The Canberra Times' front page on June 27, 1964.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/5W4iRw6LNH53uM23K5syYZ/f35f46aa-029e-4ec9-a3e8-b0f44266cb39.jpg/r64_72_1862_2708_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Australian National University staff defied officials' attempts to limit students' literature on this day in 1964, insisting Vladimir Nabokov's novel Lolita still be studied despite a country-wide ban.
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Then Vice-Chancellor of the institution, Professor Sir Leonard Huxley, announced that a request for 30 imported copies of the book had been denied by the Minister for Customs.
Senior English lecturer Dr Brissenden said that while the refusal would "naturally make it more difficult to discuss the book", he intended to keep it as part of the year's English course.
"The students can make their own arrangements about reading the book," he said in the report.
"There will be questions on the novel in the examinations, but these will not be compulsory."
The university's students association backed up the lecturer, declaring their "faith in the academic integrity of the staff of the university" and asserting his rights to prescribe any book for study.
Lolita follows a middle-aged professor's obsession with a 12-year-old girl.
The novel was banned in Australia, as well as several other countries, in the mid-1950s. The ban was not lifted until more than a year after this report was published, in July of 1965.