Controversy
In 1952 Warburg became a member of the committee of the Society for Cultural Freedom (S.C.F.), an organisation established to 'promote Western culture and defend it against the communist culture of the East'. The S.C.F. were to produce a cultural magazine, Encounter, which was later to receive sustained criticism when it emerged that much of the money used to produce the magazine came directly from the CIA.
More controversy was to follow in 1954 when Warburg was prosecuted for publishing the supposedly obscene book The Philanderer by Stanley Kauffmann. Although offered the chance to plead guilty and escape with a minimal fine, Warburg opted for the much riskier option of a public trial by jury at the Old Bailey. This decision was vindicated when he was unanimously acquitted by the jury. The presiding judge's (Sir Wintringham Stable's) summing up was added as an appendix in later editions of The Philanderer and also published separately by Secker and Warburg, and in paperback by Penguin Books, 1957.
Read more about this topic: Fredric Warburg
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