The Virile Powers of Superb Manhood.

New York: Physical Culture Publishing Company, 1900. First edition.

1900 BODYBUILDING, FITNESS, AND SEXUAL POTENCY IN AMERICA.

18 x 11.5 cm green cloth binding, decorative blindstamped cover borders, embossed gilt title to cover and spine, frontispiece of nude Macfadden with tissue guard facing preface, p 5; 237 pp, 3 pp illustrated advertisements. Cover gilt dulled, light browning to pages, text clean and unmarked. Very good in custom archival mylar cover. Verso title page, "To assist in stiffing that horrible curse of prudishness and the ignorance of sex which it entails is the object which has influenced the writing of this book. To all those whose souls and bodies are tortured with weakness because of the criminal neglect of prudish parents, or because of their own indiscretions or excesses resulting from ignorance of sex, this book is most respectfully dedicated. Do not be satisfied with mediocrity: Push onward and upward. If you are not strong, if you have not the energy, the ambition, the power, which lead me above the prosaic, the commonplace, develop it now. Make up your nind that strength and health of a high degree shall be yours, and work for this end with determination and persistence, and superb physical powers will be your glorious reward."

BERNARR A. MACFADDEN (1868 – 1955) was an American proponent of physical culture, a combination of bodybuilding with nutritional and health theories. He founded the long-running magazine publishing company Macfadden Publications. As a young child, Macfadden was weak and sickly. After being orphaned by the time he was 11, he was placed with a farmer and began working on the farm. He claimed that hard work and wholesome food on the farm turned him into a strong and fit boy. When he was 13, however, he moved to St. Louis and took a desk job. Quickly his health deteriorated again and by 16 he described himself as a "physical wreck". He started exercising with dumbbells, walking up to six miles a day with a lead weight in his clothes, and he became a vegetarian. He claimed to have quickly regained his previous health. In 1899, Macfadden founded Physical Culture magazine, and in 1900 published The Virile Power of Superb Manhood. Macfadden popularized the practice of fasting that previously had been associated with illnesses such as anorexia nervosa. He felt strongly that fasting was one of the surest ways to physical health. Macfadden established many "healthatoriums" in the eastern and midwestern states. These institutions offered educational programs, such as "The Physical Culture Training School". Although he gained his reputation for physical culture and fitness, he gained much notoriety for his views on sexual behavior. He viewed intercourse as a healthy activity and not solely a procreative one; this was a different attitude than most physicians had at the time. Nicknamed "Body Love Macfadden" by Time magazine, he was branded a "kook" and a charlatan by many, and denounced by the medical establishment. Throughout his life, he campaigned tirelessly against "pill-pushers", processed foods, and prudery. Morris Fishbein wrote that "In his campaign, Bernarr Macfadden aligned himself with the border-line cultists that oppose scientific medicine and devote themselves to the promotion of some single conception of disease causation, prevention, and treatment."