Postwar Culture

Richard Neville was the central editor throughout Oz’s decade-long run, starting in 1963. He was joined by Richard Walsh and Martin Sharp on the Sydney edition, and by Jim Anderson and, later, Felix Dennis, on the London iteration. Oz became synonymous with the artwork and illustrations of Robert Crumb and Martin Sharp, and featured articles by such prominent counterculture figures of the time as Bob Hughes, Germaine Greer, David Widgery, Abbie Hoffman, Gerry Rubin, Lillian Roxon, Lenny Bruce. The magazine was the subject of two famous obscenity trials, the first in Australia in 1964, the second in England in 1971, for which the three editors famously dressed as women during their London court appearance. In both cases, the magazine’s editors were acquitted on appeal after initially being found guilty and sentenced to rigid jail terms. On the night the editors were sent to jail, John Lennon and Yoko Ono broadcast their song “God Save Oz.”