This is the first of a series of blog posts by Library Company staff about their favorite things in the collection. Picking a favorite book is like picking a favorite child, except that we have half a million to choose from. But here goes.
Charles Knowlton's Fruits
of Philosophy; or, the Private Companion of Young Married People (New York,
1832) is the first edition of the first popular manual on birth control and the
first book on the subject by a physician.
While earlier books had advocated birth control and even hinted at
various methods, Knowlton was the first to describe in detail all the known
methods and to discuss their pros and cons in practical and medical terms. He advocated douching with cold water or with
various solutions of alum or vinegar, which was “sure, cheap, convenient, and
harmless,” and had the added advantage of putting control over contraception in
the hands of women, where he insisted it should be for both medical and
political reasons.
Knowlton was also one of the first to understand the full
impact that widespread knowledge of birth control would have on society. As historian Helen Horowitz wrote, "Fruits of Philosophy is a path breaking
work ... To the traditional insistence of moralists that humanity not engage in
sexual relations beyond what is needed for health or procreation, Knowlton
countered, 'Mankind will not so abstain'. Sex and sexuality, he said, must move
out of the realm of morality into that of physiology."
For putting these ideas into print, Knowlton was prosecuted for
obscenity three times between 1832 and 1834, once drawing a three-month jail term
in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He
published four editions between 1832 and 1839, each revised to respond to his
critics, by which time the book had been almost entirely rewritten. All subsequent editions were based on revised
versions. The first edition is known in only two or three copies and it has
never been reprinted.
As remarkable as this book is for its content and for its
impact on society, its material form is even more remarkable. It is tiny, 3 by 2 1/2 inches, a format up to
that time used mainly for miniature abridgements of the Bible. Our copy is bound it its original beige cloth with a printed paper label, in near
pristine condition. This format made the
book private (as the title has it), easy to conceal under the counter, on one’s
person, and while reading. In fact it is so small and delicate that it is hard
to turn the pages. There is no other
book quite like it.
We acquired it in 2005 in honor of Charles Rosenberg, and
with his help. Dr. Rosenberg has taught
the social history of medicine at Penn and Harvard, and he is a pioneering
collector of popular health books, many thousands of which he has donated to
the Library Company. Like all collectors,
his favorite book is the one he just got, and the one he regrets the most is
the one that got away. For Dr.
Rosenberg, the one that got away was Fruits
of Philosophy. He passed up a copy
of a third edition long ago when he was a young professor because it was just
too expensive. We bought this New York,
1832, edition for him thinking it was the second, but on closer examination and
by comparison with other copies, we realized it was the first. That was just one more reason to love this
little book that changed the course of history.
James Green
Librarian
No comments:
Post a Comment