Charles Rembar

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Charles Rembar (1915–2000) was an American lawyer. Born and raised in New Jersey, he earned his bachelor’s degree from Harvard University in 1935 and his law degree from Columbia University in 1938. He spent several years working for New Deal agencies before serving in the US Army Air Corps during World War II. Rembar is best known as a constitutional- and First Amendment–rights lawyer. His work representing Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer, D. H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover, and John Cleland’s Fanny Hill played a major role in changing the nation’s approach to obscenity and censorship laws. His book The End of Obscenity: The Trials of Lady Chatterley, Tropic of Cancer & Fanny Hill by the Lawyer Who Defended Them (1968) won the George Polk Award in journalism. Perspective (1975) is a collection of essays, and The Law of the Land: The Evolution of Our Legal System (1980) is a legal history of Western Europe and the United States.

Rembar also founded a law firm, Rembar & Curtis, which represented well known writers such as Norman Mailer, Tom Clancy, Herman Wouk, and Louise Erdrich.