Fruits of Philosophy; or The Private Companion of Adult People

Mount Vernon: Peter Pauper Press, 1937. Limited Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good/No Jacket. 0x0x0. Limited edition, one of 450 copies. Boards lightly soiled. 1937 Hard Cover. 107 pp. A limited edition reissue of the work originally published anonymously in 1832, which according to the introductory notice "has done much to revolutionize the sexual habits of the English speaking world. Its importance lies chiefly in its influence in diffusing contraceptive knowledge... The Fruits of Philosophy is the most important treatise on birth control technique for seventeen centuries; the greatest since the chapter in Sorano's Gynecology (2nd century A.D.)." "Knowlton (truncated) may perhaps be considered the American founder of contraceptive medicine. At all events, this is the first treatise on contraceptive technique by an American physician." Himes, Medical History of Contraception, p. 462-64). Hoolihan 2154: "Knowlton's birth control manual sold well, and he was prosecuted three times under the state common law obscenity statute for selling it." Garrison-Morton 7036: "First edition published privately and anonymously. Second edition, with additions, Boston, 1833. Many times reprinted. Republished by Charles Bradlaugh and Annie Besant, 1891. Edited, with an introductory notice by Norman E. Himes, and with "medical emendations" by Robert Latou Dickinson (1937). Digital facsimile of the 1891 edition from the Internet Archive at this link. See Michael Sappol, "Anatomical Performance, Medical Narrative, and Identity in Antebellum America," Bull. Hist. Med., 83 (2009) 460-49, which primarily concerns the life of Knowlton through the examination of his autobiography." Contents include: Introductory Notice by Prof. Norman E. Himes; Introduction; The Argument; Generation; Of Preventing Conception Without Sacrifice of Enjoyment; Of the Signs of Pregnancy; Remarks on the Reproductive Instinct; Medical Emendations. (Inventory #: 2340678)