"Between the Lines," Miami Herald
October 27, 1935, p. 18
WHEN the English publishing house of Constable brought out Tom Kromer’s “Waiting for Nothing” (published here by Knopf), they omitted one entire chapter. In its place appears a colored insert containing the publisher’s reasons for deletion, which might be summarized as fear of censorship. A part of the explanation reads:
“We have cut out Chapter IV entirely—cut it out with reluctance and with shame, merely consoling ourselves with the thought that fortunately the continuity of the book is in no way affected. Were we wrong to cut it out? No one can possibly say. Would we have been guilty of corrupting youth had we left it in? Once again, no one—in advance—has the smallest idea. That is how things are in England these days; and that is why “Waiting for Nothing” appears in England in an emasculated form.”
The book deals with the experiences of a man without a job and chapter IV is the account of the most revolting and degrading of those experiences.