Collection of Ephemera Related to Harm Drenth, the “West Virginia Bluebeard” Killer

(True Crime) (Serial Killers) [Drenth, Harm]. Collection of Correspondence, Photographs, and Publications related to Harm Drenth, the “West Virginia Bluebeard” Killer, 1924-1932.

Dutch-born Harm Drenth (1892-1932), a.k.a. Herman Drenth; Harry Powers; and Cornelius O. Pierson, preyed on women he met through matrimonial correspondence agencies and lonely heart’s clubs in the 1920s and early 1930s. Claiming to be a wealthy civil engineer, he wooed widows across the US with expertly written love letters. After developing ardent postal relationships, he traveled to the women’s homes to continue his courtship. The lucky ones were robbed. The unlucky were tortured and killed.

In 1927, he married one of these correspondents, Louella Strother, under the alias Harry Powers. They settled in her hometown of Quiet Dell, West Virginia, where she owned a small grocery. Living as Mr. Powers, he continued his con from a post office box in nearby Clarksburg, receiving as many as 20 letters a day until August 1931. That month, two missing widows, Mrs. D. A. Lemke and Mrs. A. B. Eicher, and Mrs. Eicher’s three children, were traced to Quiet Dell through their correspondences, and found buried next to his “murder garage,” The women had been bound and gassed, while Drenth stood behind a plate glass window. In his confession he said the pleasure of watching them die “beat any cat house I was ever in.”

After his arrest he was accused in the disappearance of many other women, but lacking evidence, he was convicted only of the five Quiet Dell murders. He was hanged in 1932. His story became the basis for the celebrated film Night of the Hunter (1955), written by James Agee and starring Robert Mitchum.

This collection sheds new light on the sexual nature of Drenth’s crimes. While his own prurience is well-documented, current literature referencing his crimes makes no mention of the anachronistic sexual liberation he tried to foster in his victims. The present and otherwise unrecorded(?) contemporary pamphlet Love Secrets of Bluebeard, Containing the Famous ‘Unprintable’ Letter, describes these methods. Drenth’s house was full of “books dealing exclusively with sex. [...] He had books of love letters. [...] He knew how to arouse in a woman, by a slow, gradual system of building up of emotions, a great sexual longing in a woman…“ The pamphlet reproduces a lengthy “unprintable” letter from Drenth to one of his victims recommending a number of sex instruction books (copies of which he had sent previously, including Havelock Ellis). He tells his correspondent how to read them, encouraging her to take notes and ask questions. Emphasizing the importance of a healthy sex instinct, he suggests that she write her own sexual history and exchange it with him before they meet. Finally, he discusses the importance of foreplay for women’s pleasure in explicit detail.

This present group includes many items found among Drenth’s possessions at the time of his arrest and given to a local newspaper editor, Heister G. Rhawn by the District Attorney:

1. Two pp. undated template letter, written in pen by Drenth, apparently used for formulating his introductory letter to female pen-pals. Describing his appearance and his income, he writes “my wife can have anything, within reason, that money can buy.” He offers to exchange photos and closes with the request “Please write.” He signs C.O. Pierson (“‘Connie’ for short”), the alias under which he wooed and killed Mrs. Eicher.
2. 3x5 photograph of Drenth, of the type he used in his correspondence.
3. Eight postcards, 1924-1926, written by five different women and addressed to Drenth in Mansfield Ohio under various aliases (most Harry Powers).
4. Photo-postcard of Maud L. Johnson, of Fairfield, Ill., who disappeared in 1929, and was probably one of Drenth’s victims. Name and address written verso in Drenth’s hand?
5. Nine letters, 1926-1927, each 2-10 pp., written in ink by Drenth’s wife, Luella Strother. Sent before their marriage, they give a sense of the sexual tenor of his correspondence with his victims. Includes the first letter Strother wrote to Powers? One with annotations in Drenth’s hand, another faded, each will original paper-clips, some marking from rust. Handwriting clear, easily legible.
6. TLS to Mrs. D.A. Lamke [sic], dated Oct. 1927, from the New Home Club agency, “Cupid’s Headquarters.” Mrs. Lemke is notified that the club will have other members write directly to her. One of these ended up being Drenth [a.k.a. Harry Powers].

Together with a number of items assembled by Rhawn or his daughter, Harriette Rhawn Behringer:

1. TLS from Detroit Chief of Detectives, dated Sept. 1931, advising the Clarksburg police that Drenth/Powers had been supplied with 300 names per month by the American Friendship Society matrimonial agency.
2. Single page telegram from the Omaha World Herald, Aug. 1931., enquiring of the Clarksburg newspaper whether any of the letters discovered among Drenth’s papers were from Iowan women.
3. Two pp. wire service release, presumably from the Clarksburg paper, The Exponent(?), announcing Drenth’s execution. Badly toned, chipped, and separated where folded. Fair.
4. Charleston, West Virginia Gazette clipping, March 1932, covering execution of Powers. Folded, toned.
5. Two copies of an unrecorded contemporary pamphlet on the case: Love Secrets of Bluebeard, Containing the Famous “Unprintable” Letter [title from cover]. Np. Nd. (ca. 1931-1932, before the execution). 8vo, 14 pp., illus. Pictorial yellow wrappers worn.
6. Clipping of a retrospective article on the case, published in the Charleston Gazette-Mail, March 1967.
7. Stapled pieces of an undated, redacted TLS from Behringer explaining her father’s relationship to the case and offering the materials for sale.

Archive of Leather Fraternity Membership Files

Archive of Leather Fraternity Membership Files, Los Angeles, California, 1973-1978.

Approximately 1.0 linear foot composed of: 200 membership files (approx. 190 with 4 page membership application, the majority manuscript, others typed); most with a photograph of the member and at least once piece of additional correspondence, for an approx. total of 1000+ pages and 175 photos, ranging in size from 1-½ x 1 in. to 8 x 10 in., most closer to 3-¼ x 2-¼ in.; 9 applications and membership correspondence loose, now housed in mylar; two administrative files, and one sheet of Leather Fraternity stickers. Occasional wear from handling, a few photos darkened or toned, overall very good.

An exceptional research archive of 200 Leather Fraternity member files, almost all containing a 4 pp. confidential membership application with exhaustive details pertaining to the applicant’s sexual history, fetishes, and fantasies. Fraternity demographics represented a diverse age range, experience level, and sexual identification. Most applications accompanied by at least one required photograph, many with two or three, forming a parallel collection of vernacular self-portrait photography, some of it erotic. Together the files represent an astonishing and intimate catalogue of male homosexuality and kink, all self-described in answer to prompts including “My first sexual experience,” “My first S/M experience,” and “What do you think are your best qualifications for your roles as slave/master?”

The Leather Fraternity began in 1973 as a fee-based confidential “introduction referral service” for gay leathermen in Los Angeles. Creator John Embry (1926-2010) was a serial entrepreneur who used the Fraternity newsletter as a crossmarketing device with his S/M mail-order business, Robert Payne’s Leather Emporium. Two years later, he founded the quintessential leather/BDSM magazine, Drummer, with Jeanne Barney as editor-in-chief. In Drummer’s first issue (June 1975), the Leather Fraternity was described as an “international, membership only, fast growing group of hundreds of gay Leathermen,” who would be “hand-matched based on the criteria in the confidential application.” Fraternity classifieds were an important part of the magazine, and until 1977, one had to be a member to respond.

The importance of the Fraternity and Drummer cannot be overstated; together they provided visibility for “the emerging identity of the ‘new’ homosexual,” a “homomasculine” or “hypomasculine” male, radically different from prevailing effeminate gay stereotypes. The magazine and the businesses associated with it created a network “of men who did not always have a sense of belonging elsewhere in the gay men’s community. It served as a communal forum for often isolated individuals and allowed for existing leather and kink institutions to be more easily identified and accessed. But perhaps most importantly, it generated a common culture and shared language that helped integrate local networks into a more national and international conversation. It gave these men images, stories, information, commentary, products and ideas to jerk off to, to relate to, to identify with, and that served to empower and grow a fledgling network of leathermen.” (1)

For two years before Drummer, Embry’s Fraternity newsletter had been connecting men with corresponding kinks. The application was designed to elicit the utmost specificity regarding appearance, preferred roles, dress, toys, substances, and activities. Invited to use additional sheets of paper if necessary, many files include longer, manuscript accounts of their deepest, idiosyncratic fantasies. The potential members placed an extraordinary amount of trust in the Leather Fraternity and Drummer staff. They provided their real names and addresses during a period when most of the described activities were considered deviant, if not outright illegal. Indeed, from 1975-1976 the core staff of Drummer were under 24hr police surveillance.

Police harassment of Embry, Barney, and others culminated the night of April 10, 1976, when the LAPD raided a Drummer charitable mock “slave auction” at the Mark IV Baths. The police “emancipated” the “slaves” and arrested 40 people for violating an 1899 statute forbidding involuntary servitude. Charges were dropped against most defendants, but four eventually plead guilty to felony pandering, including Embry, Barney, and the porn star Val Martin, who had been acting as the auctioneer.

Two substantial administrative files in the archive document the lead up to the auction and its aftermath. Correspondence between Barney and various members shed light on the ongoing conflict both with the LAPD and internally at Drummer and the Fraternity. Eventually, Embry and Barney split ways: he took Drummer to San Francisco in 1977, initiating a legal battle over the Fraternity membership files and dues. Although Barney’s bid to revive the Leather Fraternity newsletter independent of the magazine was ultimately unsuccessful, these files suggest that she continued to accept new members through 1978 and ended up with most, if not all, of the original application materials.

Files organized by last name and box number, this group including names beginning G-Z. It is difficult to speculate on exactly how many files might have existed, but given Embry’s 1975 claim to “hundreds” of members, we believe this may well represent at least two-thirds of the original membership files. Many with additional correspondence, some with considerably more. Most in regard to satisfaction or lack thereof with the membership; dues; missing issues of Drummer (a free subscription was included with membership); and edits to the encapsulated classified ads. Scattered references to responses written to other members that can be cross-referenced within the archive, a few unopened letters.

More images available on request.

$18,000

(1) Race Bannon, “John Embry’s Inductee Speech: Leather Hall of Fame,” 2014. See also Jack Fritscher, Gay San Francisco: The Rise and Fall of Drummer Magazine, 2013.

Ultra: Wrestling Gals, Bizarre Fads, Exotic Fashions. Vol. 1, No. 3.

[Zucker, Hal]. Zucca, H. Ultra: Wrestling Gals, Bizarre Fads, Exotic Fashions. Vol. 1, No. 3. New York, NY: Ultra Sports Co., 1958. 8-¼ x 5-½ in., 61, [3] pp.; b/w illus. from artwork by Gene Bilbrew and Eric Stanton among many others, uncredited; in orig. color stapled wrappers, with remnants of red privacy tape at edges and a handwritten price in upper corner, small loss to bottom of rear wrap.

One of four total numbers of this domination and sports fetish digest. Single OCLC holding at Yale, of the first issue.

$95

Six Posters from an Advertising Campaign for the Margo St. James Task Force on Prostitution

(Sex Work) [St. James, Margo]. De Souza, Neville and Gerard Vaglio. Six Posters from an Advertising Campaign for the Margo St. James Task Force on Prostitution. San Francisco: COYOTE, [1995]. Six posters, each 22 x 14-1/8 in.; b/w offset prints, rolled, with occasional horizontal creases from being pressed while rolled, more noticeable to some posters; minor edge wear; creased corner to one poster. Very Good.

Six of seven posters produced for a 1995 ad campaign, part of St. James’ and COYOTE’s longstanding work to decriminalize prostitution in California. Produced pro bono by sympathetic professional designers Neville de Souza and Gerard Vaglio, the posters pair arresting images with stark text. They address the legal and physical vulnerability of street prostitutes, the stigmatization of arrest records for future employment, and the cost of San Francisco’s anti-prostitution police squad (at the time more than $5 million annually), among other issues.

According to contemporary news reports, 7,000 of the posters were produced and distributed throughout the city. Not surprisingly, the campaign was controversial, particularly with the city’s Board of Supervisors Prostitution Task Force, whose members felt the posters promoted prostitution. Melissa Farley, well-known anti-trafficking activist, responded to the ad campaign “Just because the oldest jobs in the world are slavery and pimping doesn’t mean we as a society should support racism and prostitution.” James and COYOTE staffer Carol Leigh were both on the task force, six other members resigned “in disgust” over the dispute, claiming the panel had been “stacked” with advocates of legalization (SFGate).

Few of the posters appear to have survived, we find no holdings in OCLC or examples on the market.

ON HOLD

Les Maladies Sans Nom. Leur Guréison Faciles et Radicale Conseils aux Medales Désespérés.

(Sexual Health) Richard, Charles-Antoin. Les Maladies Sans Nom. Leur Guréison Faciles et Radicale Conseils aux Medales Désespérés. Paris: E. Dentu, [1877]. 6-1/2 x 4-1/2 in., 32 pp.; pink stapled wrappers, light wear.

Richard gives case histories of many diseases, some sexual, healed with either “gouttes régératices” made by Dr. Samuel Thompson or “Granules d’Arséniate” by Dr. Addison. Further research warranted into connection to other arsenic-based treatments for venereal disease.

Parisian holdings cite 46 pages [sic?], North American holdings only at Rochester.

$125

(Sexual Health) Aux Victimes de L’Amour

(Sexual Health) Bertray, A. Aux Victimes de L’Amour by Doctor Bertray Professor ... of the Faculty of Medicine of Paris . Paris: [Dupont], nd [ca. 1900]. 4-3/4 x 3-1/8 in., 8 pp.; stapled self-wraps, 1 mm closed tear front wrap fore-edge, else very good. Dr. Bertray will “relieve and heal what he bonhomie called the little miseries of Parisians.” A related edition held at BNF only, otherwise unrecorded.

$ 45

(Sexual Health) (Soldiers) Keeping Fit to Fight; Sex Hygiene and Venereal Disease

(Sexual Health) (Soldiers) (WWI) (WWII) War Department and American Social Hygiene Association. Keeping Fit to Fight. [New York?], n.d. [1918?]. 16 pp.; with medical illus.; ex-library, withdrawn stamp on front wrap. Together with: War Department. Sex Hygiene and Venereal Disease. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1942. Small oblong pamphlet, 8 pp.; tape at spine, front wrap heavily marked in contemporary pen. “A copy will be furnished to each recruit upon enlistment.”

Two pamphlets written for newly enlisted soldiers in both World Wars, describing sex and venereal disease in American vernacular. Sections on wet dreams, masturbation, and including contemporary slang, e.g. “Lues” for syphilis.

$50

(Sexual Health) (Government) Six Booklets, Reports, and Pamphlets

(Sexual Health) (Government) United States Interdepartmental Social Hygiene Board, Washington, D.C. Six Booklets, Reports, and Pamphlets. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1920. All 8vo, varying from 11-272 pp.; one with folding maps and organizational chart; all in paper wraps with stab holes from previous binding, one front wrap separated, else good.

Scarce documentation of the federal effort to coordinate research and prevention against social disease, within the armed forces and through federal funding to the States. Together a rich document of federal operations and organization in relation to private and state-funded efforts. Including “a study of the records of six thousand delinquent women …” Titles all from 1920, including:

Scientific Researches (January 1920); Program of Protective Social Measures Showing a Type of Federal aid available to States in connection with Venereal Disease Control (February 1920); Scientific Researches: Second Announcement. Section I, Section II (April 1920); Manual for the Various Agents of the United States Interdepartmental Social Hygiene Board with appendices containing the federal law creating the Board, amendments thereto, regulations regarding funds administered by this Board, financial statements, a study of the records of six thousand delinquent women [...]; and Report of the United States Interdepartmental Social Hygiene Board for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1920.

Our research indicates most with only scattered US institutional physical holdings, despite labyrinthine OCLC records indicating otherwise.

$250

(Sexual Health) (Education) Seven Booklets and Pamphlets

(Sexual Health) (Education) (New York) New York Social Hygiene Society; American Social Hygiene Association. Seven Booklets and Pamphlets, 1914-1924. 8vo, each 4-171 pp., most approx. 12 pp.; two with b/w illus. throughout, in various printed wrappers, most ex-library with accession stamps and pencil shelf labels. Overall Good.

Based in New York, the founders of the American Social Hygiene Association (ASHA) included reformers and philanthropists such as Jane Addams and John D. Rockefeller, Jr. At least through the early 1920s ASHA shared an address with the New York Social Hygiene Society, formerly the Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis, the earliest of the American “voluntary social hygiene associations,” and a member of ASHA. The New York Society and ASHA cooperated with medical organizations, law enforcement, and social welfare groups to develop public information campaigns: mainly in the form of lectures, pamphlets, and journals.

This group includes two well-illustrated examples: Frank J. Osborne. A Health Exhibit for Men. New York, NY: New York Social Hygiene Society, 1917, with a few closed tears; and The New York Social Hygiene Society, Inc., 1916-1917 [title from cover]. New York, NY. Both booklets document public exhibits and lectures given in the state of New York.

Also: American Social Hygiene Association. First Annual Report, 1913-1914. New York, NY: The American Society Hygiene Association, 1914. Frank J. Osborne. The Control of Venereal Disease from the Public Health Standpoint. New York, NY: The New York Social Hygiene Society, 1917. Will Irwin. Conquering an Old Enemy. New York, NY: The American Society Hygiene Association, 1920. Publications of the American Social Hygiene Association, 1918. Bigelow, Maurice. The Established Points in Social Hygiene Education. New York, NY: American Social Hygiene Association, 1924.

$200

(Sexual Health) (Education) Circular Nos. 2-4

(Sexual Health) (Education) (Illinois) Chicago Society of Social Hygiene. Circular No. 2. Self-Protection: Sexual Hygiene For Young Men; Circular No. 3. Family Protection: For the Protection of Wives and Children from Venereal Contamination; Circular No. 4. Community Protection: Education against Venereal Disease a Need of the State. Chicago, IL: Chicago Society of Social Hygiene, n.d. [ca. 1911-1920]. 8vo, each pamphlet [4] pp.; no. 2 somewhat toned, else good.

Public health pamphlets issued by the Chicago member organization of the American Social Hygiene Association. Scarce in the market and institutionally, OCLC seemingly records less than 5 physical copies of each circular, possibly fewer?

$100

(Sexual Health) (Education) (Illinois) Manpower

(Sexual Health) (Education) (Illinois) Public Health Service, United States. Manpower. Venereal Disease Pamphlet No. 6. [Springfield IL?]: Social Hygiene Press; State Department of Public Health, Illinois, n.d. [ca. 1919]. 16 pp. pamphlet, stapled pictorial color wrapper, 1mm closed tear, recto, else very good.

“Sex—uncontrolled is disaster and wreck. Sex in control for men means Power.” Original emphasis.

A few pamphlets from this series held at Harvard and Oberlin, this one seemingly unrecorded in OCLC.

$45

(Sexual Health) (Education) (California) A Plain Explanation of the Greatest Social Evil

(Sexual Health) (Education) (California) Howard, Wm. Lee. A Plain Explanation of the Greatest Social Evil. San Francisco, CA: Purity Educational League of North America, 1910; and California Social Hygiene Society. 16 pp.; stapled printed wraps, ex-library with stamps and shelf-marks. Circular No. 8: The Need for Education in Sex Hygiene. San Francisco, CA: n.d. [ca. 1913]. 9 pp.; stapled self-wrapper, very good.

Early sex hygiene pamphlets. Although its name suggests otherwise, the Purity Educational League of North America was committed to a “wholesome discussion of sex life” featuring “pure and healthful knowledge,” in contrast to the “silence and secrecy” of past policy. “By secrecy we encourage mental perversion.” Sex education is patriotic.

$30

(Sexual Health) (Education) 11 educational pamphlets and nearly complete Journal of Social Diseases

(Sexual Health) (Education) A collection of 11 educational pamphlets published by the Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis and The American Federation for Sex Hygiene, 1911-1914. Together with a nearly complete run of Journal of Social Diseases, 1911-1915.

A comprehensive and rare collection of early sex instruction and social hygiene materials from the the first social hygiene association in the United States. In 1905, New York dermatologist Prince Morrow founded The Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis, it later changed its name to The American Federation for Sex Hygiene, and eventually joined with sister organizations in other states to form the American Social Hygiene Association. Seizing on the momentum of the growing public health movement, Morrow is recognized as an early and key proponent of sex instruction (sex hygiene) in schools. Believing that most parents were not qualified to provide medical and scientific instruction, Morrow’s organization sought to introduce modern, secular sex hygiene into public education through professional text-books, literature, and lectures.

Although some of the society’s arguments were based on contemporary scientific sexism and racism, Morrow believed medical misinformation and the sexual double-standard against women were dangerous impediments to understanding and prevention. This led the Society to hold men equally accountable for social diseases. Healthy sexual function required eliminating the demand for prostitution and pornography, not just the prostitute or pornographer.

By WWI, Morrow’s medical sex instruction movement had been joined to, and subsumed by, the moral purity movement, creating a new national sexual health agenda that partnered private associations and community groups with the US military and punitive federal policy. The partnership between ASHA (which was led by Charles Eliot, president-emeritus of Harvard, and counted Jane Addams and Julius Rosenwald among its board) and the US government led to policies that continued to stigmatize women (and incarcerate them). In one infamous example, El Paso made it a felony to infect someone with a venereal disease in 1918.

Physical copies of these early sexual health materials are rare in Worldcat and the market.

Comprising: Morrow, Dr. Prince A. Report on Progress; The Sex Problem: Social Diseases, Publicity, Sex Instruction, The Double Standard of Morality; and The Teaching of Sex Hygiene. New York, NY: Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis; The American Federation for Sex Hygiene, 1912. Three pamphlets, each stapled self wraps, The Sex Problem ex-library with stamps and pencil shelf-mark to front. Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis Educational Pamphlet Nos. 1-2, 4-7 (The Young Man’s Problem; Instruction in the Physiology and Hygiene of Sex for Teachers; The Boy Problem for Parents and Teachers; How My Uncle, The Doctor, Instructed Me in Matters of Sex; Health and the Hygiene of Sex for College Students; The Mother’s Reply. New York, NY: Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis, 1911-1914. 16-32 pp. each. These editions distributed by the Purity Educational League of North America (San Francisco). Ex-library with stamps and shelf-marks. Very Good. Bigelow, Maurice A. Sex-Instruction as a Phase of Social Education. New York: NY, American Federation for Sex Hygiene, 1913. Ex-library with stamps and shelf-marks. Good. Eliot, Charles W. Public Opinion and Sex Hygiene. New York: NY, American Federation for Sex Hygiene, 1913. Ex-library with stamps and shelf-marks. Good. Together with: The Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis. Journal of Social Diseases. Vols. II-IV. New York, NY: Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis, 1911-1913. Continued by: Journal of The Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis. Vols. V-VI. New York, NY: Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis, 1914-1915. 20 issues in two vols., cloth, original wrappers bound in. Ex-library stamps, spines with printed shelf-labels, else very good. Five of six volumes, a nearly complete run of the first American sexual hygiene journal.

$1750

(Sex Work) Group of Sex Work Ephemera from Brazil, England, and the US

(Sex Work) Group of Sex Work Ephemera from Brazil, England, and the US, 1975-2001.

Comprised of: Hustlers’ Rights Project, We Are the Target [San Francisco, CA: 1975], (10) stapled fliers from the Bay Area Gay Liberation organizing against antiprositution activities, verso printed with mailing list? of California organizations; Coyote and Project AWARE, Sex in the Age of Aids: A forum for women who work in the sex industry, [San Francisco, CA: 1985], small pink flier, printed recto and verso, corner with loss, advertising AIDS antibody testing and a public panel conversation; King’s Cross Women’s Centre, Centrepiece 5: The Hooker & The Beak, London, 1987; W.H.I.S.P.E.R.: Women Hurt in Systems of Prostitution Engaged in Revolt, Vol. I, No. 3 (Winter 1986-87) and Vol. II, No. 1 (Spring 1987), New York: NY. Together with Maria José Bacelar Guimarães, “Empresário procura mulher jovem, morena, bonita, liberal…”: Explorando os anúncios de estrangeiros, Salvador, Brasil: Centro Humanitário de Apoio à Mulher, 2002, 106 pp. with bibliography.

$150

(Sex Education) (Antisemitism) Collection of Anti-Sex Education and Moral Decency Literature

(Sex Education) (Christian) (Antisemitism) Collection of Anti-Sex Education and Moral Decency Literature, 1956-1970.

Comprising 11 booklets and pamphlets from both Christian and conservative morality campaigns, including Christian Crusade, The John Birch Society, The Movement to Restore Decency (MOTOREDE), and the National Organization for Decent Literature. Most examples are argued from Christian perspectives, some with explicit racist, sexist, anticommunist, and antisemitic content corresponding to far-right panic over the cultural impact of school integration and sexuality education. Frequent references to counterculture and the “sexual indoctrination” espoused by the Sex Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS; founded by Dr. Mary Calderone, medical director for Planned Parenthood Federation of America). Some illustrated. Scattered holdings in OCLC, some unrecorded. Overall condition very good.

$400

In chronological order: Publications Disapproved for Youth by the National Organization for Decent Literature: June 1956. Chicago, IL: NODL, 1956. [12] pp. pamphlet with book list by genre; 20th Century Reformation Hour. The Shame of the National Council of Churches … Collingswood, NJ: [1961]. 7 pp. illus. pamphlet; The problem of teen-age purity: The teachings of Pope Pius XII. New Rochelle, NY: Salesiana Publishers and Distributors, [1961]; Cross, John. A Fearful Crime to Offend God in Order to Please Men. Kenosha: WI: Cross Publications, 1961. 32 pp. stapled booklet; How the ‘Levelers’ Are Destroying America. N.p., n.d. [ca. 1968]. [4] pp. pamphlet; Sex Education in the Schools: Some Thoughts from Eminent Doctors and From MOTOREDE. Belmont, MA: MOTOREDE, n.d. [ca. 1969]. [4] pp. pamphlet; Manion Forum: Weekly Broadcast No. 791. South Bend, IN: 1969. [4] pp. newsletter; Hargis, Billy James. Sex Replaces Prayer in Public Schools. [Christian Crusade], 1969. [4] pp. newsletter; The Fact Finder. Must Our Schools Teach our Children Sex without Morality? Phoenix, AZ: 1969. [8] pp. pamphlet, illus.; American Education Lobby. Sex Education: Assault on American Youth. Washington, D.C.: American Education Lobby, n.d. [ca. 1969]. [4] pp. folio newsletter; Drake, Dr. Gordon V. SIECUS: Corrupter of Youth. Tulsa, OK: Christian Crusade, 1969. 63 pp. stapled booklet with bibliography; Hargis, Billy James. Sex Revolution in the United States. Tulsa, OK: Christian Crusade, 1970. First Edition. 53 pp. booklet, some b/w illus.

(Sexual Health) (Prostitution) (California) Transactions of the Commonwealth Club of California ...

(Sexual Health) (Prostitution) (California) Commonwealth Club of California. Transactions of the Commonwealth Club of California. Vol. VI, No. 1: The Red Plague (May 1911) and Vol. VIII, No. 7 (August 1913): The Red Plague—Second Report. San Francisco, CA: Commonwealth Club, 1911; 1913. 2 vols., 8vo, 83; [99] pp.; in printed wrappers, tight, sunned at edges, vol. VI spine just starting to split at foot. Good.

The first issue documents the groundbreaking proceedings of a “sane, healthful” public discussion of sex hygiene in prostitution to undo a “conspiracy of silence” on this means of spreading venereal disease. Following this first conference, the Club’s committee made recommendations to the state Board of Health, but hesitated on one controversial recommendation regarding whether or not “registration and compulsory examination” of prostitutes could result in diminished venereal disease. The second issue provides a number of opinionated analyses of the results of such a program from 1911-1912 at a municipal clinic in San Francisco, the only one of its kind in the US. These later reports offer conflicting opinions on state-sanctioned health care for prostitutes and its effects on the health of the general population, including the innocent women and children who are victims of men’s immorality. Impassioned arguments for and against legalized prostitution.

The only physical holdings definitively recorded in OCLC outside of California are at Harvard Law.

$125

(Dating) (Internet - Social Aspects) Collection of 13 Zines, 1999-2014

(Dating) (Internet - Social Aspects) Collection of 13 Zines, 1999-2014?.

Overall offering a broad perspective of contemporary dating culture, self-presentation, and sexuality. Most with fewer than 2 OCLC holdings, many others unrecorded.

Most 8-½ x 5-½ in., with illus. stapled wrappers, two single vol. octavo fold format, one sewn, most 8-40 pp.; profusely illustrated zines with anecdotes on internet dating including apps, Craigslist, social media, and sexual encounters. A few overtly feminist and/or queer, many compiling real classifieds. One mostly in haiku. Very Good.

Includes: B&D Press, Naked on the 6 Train: M4M, n.d.; Lizz Carlton and Mollie Underwood, Eds., Garbage Never Looked So Good, Irrelevant Press, n.d.; Alexandra Montclair, Classified Casanova, n.d.; Nicky Rodriguez, How (Not) to get a woman, n.d., and How (Not) to get a woman, Vol. 2, n.d.; Aaron Mew, Aaron’s Guide to Getting Girls, n.d. [California? ca. 1999?], Up Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 5: Modern Dating, St. Paul, MN: 2000; Awkward Ladies Club, Never date dudes from the internet: responses to a Craigslist ad, 2005; Andy Yates, Celebrity Blind Date! Starring Mel Gibson & Sarah Palin, 2010; Carrie Colpitts, My aim is true #6: You are not alone, [Chicago, IL]: n.d. [2011?]; Mission Mini Comix, Quincy’s Terrible, Horrible, Worst-ever Blind Date, San Francisco, CA: [2011]; Teppei Ando, I miss you already, Stranger - m4w - 52 …, [2012?]; Red Velvet, Things men have told me about my body, [2014]; Red Velvet and How are Your Insides, Have you had sex with this person, [2014].

$350

(Dating) (Internet) A Girl’s Guide to Dating a Geek.

(Dating) (Internet - Culture) Inouye, Omi M. A Girl’s Guide to Dating a Geek. [London]: 2007. 8vo, 168 pp.; in pictorial wrapper, scratched and worn.

Guide with graphs, case studies, fieldwork reports, and exercises designed to help the “females identify geeks using a helpful Geek Test, categorize them into distinct subclasses, understand and cope with their foibles, and if necessary, acclimatize to their culture.” “[D]iscover how to plot revenge, diagnose common geek ailments, and find the perfect geek gift.”

Highly specific moment in the evolution of 2000s geek culture. OCLC: 2 North American holdings.

$60

(Dating) (Asian-American) Donahue Transcript 02244

(Dating) (Asian-American) Donahue, Phil. Donahue Transcript 02244. Cincinnati, OH: Multimedia Entertainment, Inc., 1984. 8vo, 23 pp.; stapled show transcript regarding Asian women and Asian mail-order bride services, with discussion of stereotypes, sexuality, religion.

A few scattered holdings of Donahue transcripts exist in OCLC, not of this show.

$200

(Courtship) (Theater) How to Choose a Wife: Ten Tips for Men Who are Threatened with Matrimony

(Courtship) (Theatre) (Women) [Fairfax, Marian]; [The Dorner Players]. How to Choose a Wife: Ten Tips for Men Who are Threatened with Matrimony. [Elmira, NY], n.d. [ca. 1913-1914]. Small handbill promoting a staging of Fairfax’s play, “The Talker,” in Elmira, New York, by a traveling actor’s troupe. Satirical text presumably by Fairfax.

Ephemera related to the screenwriter and playwright Marian Fairfax’s early Broadway hit, “The Talker” (1912). Fairfax broke ground for women on stage and in Hollywood, writing a number of theatrical hits and silent films. She formed her own Hollywood production company in 1921.

$50

(Courtship) (Christian) How to pick a wife [...]

(Courtship) (Christian) Orr, William. How to pick a wife for Christian fellows. Wheaton, IL: Scripture Press, 1953. 8vo, 32 pp.; color stapled wrapper, small area of discoloration on front wrap. Together with Lovasik, Lawrence. Clean love in courtship. St. Paul, MN: Fathers Rumble & Carty, Radio Replies Press, n.d. [ca. 1948]. 8vo, 73 pp.; pictorial stapled wrapper, lightly rubbed.

Advice for Protestants (Orr) and Catholics (Lovasik) looking for love, addressing both spiritual and practical questions, e.g. Where to Look for Her, How to Look for Her, Self-Denial, Practical Tips for Dates, and the pitfalls of Parked Cars and Dangerous Reading.

OCLC finds no North American holdings for Orr, a few for Lovasik.

$55

(Courtship) Six Acquaintance Cards

(Courtship) Six Acquaintance Cards. N.p., N.d. On colored papers, 3 loose, one uncut single sheet printed with 3 additional examples. Sheet inscribed verso in pencil “From Willie/To Margaret.” Together with The Matrimonial Post and Fashionable Marriage Advertiser. No. 988 (July 1949). London. Tabloid, [8] pp. thumbed.

$50

(Antiprostitution) Report and recommendations of the Wisconsin Legislative Committee [...]

(Antiprostitution) Wisconsin Vice Committee. Report and recommendations of the Wisconsin Legislative Committee to Investigate the White Slave Traffic and Kindred Subjects. Madison, WI: The Committee, 1914. 8vo, 246 pp.; printed wrapper, splitting at foot, ex-library with stamps and pencil shelf-mark.

$25

(Sexual Health) (Pennsylvania) Four Reports on Vice and Social Diseases

(Sexual Health) (Pennsylvania) (Antiprostitution) Four reports on vice and social diseases, 1911-1913.

Together revealing the competing contemporary methodologies for controlling disease and vice: 1) scientific/medical and 2) moral/legal. Philadelphia’s report includes police reports and detailed arrest notes, as well as an appendix on sex hygiene. The Pittsburgh commission’s “constructive program” recommends sterilization and censorship and includes an extremely harsh analysis of women in prostitution, “lured by the love of luxury and idleness [rather] than driven by the pangs of penury.” Includes a wage survey of prostitutes in the city.

*The Vice Commission of Philadelphia: a report on existing conditions with recommendations to the Honorable Rudolph Blankenburg, Mayor of Philadelphia. Philadelphia, PA: The Vice Commission of Philadelphia, 1913. 8vo, 163 pp.; in brown printed wrapper, lower forecorner damaged throughout textblock, not affecting text. Fair.

*Morals Efficiency Commission. Report and recommendations of Morals efficiency commission. Pittsburgh, PA: N.p., 1913. 8vo, 43 pp.; stapled gray printed wrapper, sunned, damaged forecorner affects all pages, not affecting legibility. Fair.

*Wilson, Robert. The Eradication of the Social Diseases in Large Cities. Offprint from Transactions of the Fifteenth International Congress on Hygiene and Demography, 1912. Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1912. 8vo, 12 pp.; stapled printed wrapper, center fold and darkened.

*Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Social Disease. Report and Prospectus, 1911. [Philadelphia, PA]: N.p., 1911. Small 8vo, [16] pp.; printed self-wrapper, subscription card laid in, small closed tears at fore edge. Good.

$75

(Sexual Health) (Libraries) Two letters soliciting librarians’ help fighting venereal disease

(Sexual Health) (Librarians) Two letters expressing support for librarians’ help fighting venereal disease. Comprising: Office of the Surgeon General, US Public Health Service, 1918. Letter from Surgeon General Rupert Blue to Librarians of the United States, October 3, 1918. Single sheet, typed, with Blue’s duplicated signature, lower right hand corner folded, two creases from original mailing. Together with: American Library Association. Letter from Secretary George Utley to Librarians, October 3, 1918. Single sheet, typed, with Utley’s duplicated signature, creased, upper corner folded.

The first letter requests support of librarians in the civic fight against venereal disease. The Surgeon General’s office will be preparing “an accredited list of books of instruction [for young men and women]” to be distributed in libraries “in such a way that their interest will be aroused.” The second, from the American Library Association, expresses approval of the Surgeon General’s plan to ask librarians to aid their enterprise in the “judicious distribution of good books.”

Together with a TLS from the American Social Hygiene Association to a library in Maine requesting information on what social hygiene reading is available at their location.

$60

(Sexual Health) (Quackery) Letter promoting a new treatment for syphilis

(Sexual Health) (Quackery) (Oklahoma). [Cosden Oil & Gas Company?]. Letter promoting a new treatment for syphilis, October 26, 1918. TLS, on a single sheet of Cosden letterhead, reporting on the Fisher treatment, a permanent cure for syphilis. Signature illegible, initials BWG.

References patients treated in 1907, a year after Oklahoma became a state, and the formation of a company to place this remedy before the public. At the time, the single syphilis cure was an arsenic compound invented by German chemist, Paul Ehrlich. It is unclear whether the “Fisher treatment” was the Ehrlich arsenic compound or another quack treatment, or if it was associated with the famed Cosden Oil & Gas Company. However, it was expected by the author to show “large and substantial profits.” and was managed by “Mr. Edward A. Hill” who may have been a geologist for Cosden.

$25

(Sexual Health) (Soldiers) Evidence in the Case of the Unwary Returnee

(Sexual Health) (WWII) [War Department?; Third Air Force]. Evidence in the Case of the Unwary Returnee. Tampa, FL: [Third Air Force?], n.d. [ca. 1941-1944]. 8vo, [12] pp.; eleven sensational stories of sexual encounters between enlisted men and various promiscuous women (“the old acquaintance” “the weeping widow” “the trim trucker” ) or procurement opportunities (“the Gabby Cabby”), all ending in venereal disease; based on “actual case history reports” reports released by Commanding General, Third Air Force, each with a half-page b/w illus., pages toned; in stapled printed wrapper, wrinkled with losses, sheets sl. loosened.

Not found in OCLC.

$325

Attenzione! Si avvicinano i “liberatori” anglo-assassini…

(Propaganda - Fascist) Attenzione! Si avvicinano i “liberatori” anglo-assassini… [Milan?], nd., ca. 1943. Poster printed in black and red, approx. 22-¾ x 19-¼ in.; toned, creases from vertical and horizontal folds, splitting at center; edges a bit worn, some foxing verso.

Poster warning inhabitants in German-controlled northern Italy of the dangers of the advancing Allied forces. “Reds,” “Jews,” and “hyenas of the air,” are coming for Italian women and children, converting them to their side with sweets and cigarettes.

OCLC locates one holding, at the Hoover.

$225

Elezioni Politiche 1913. Noi Anarchici.

(Anarchism) Elezioni Politiche 1913. Noi Anarchici … Broadside, 13 x 18-½ in.; creased, bottom edge roughly trimmed, typographic irregularities. Np, nd [1912-1913].

Anarchist broadside protesting the quasi-universal male suffrage granted to Italian men over 30 by the “moderately progressive” government of Giovanni Giolitti in 1912. The enfranchisement extended the vote to the very poor and illiterate, with the dramatic impact of trebling the electorate (from 3 to almost 9 million voters) in advance of the 1913 elections. The far left parties (Estrema) did not support the franchise; here anarchists protest it as a bourgeois “swindle,” keeping intact economic tyranny and solidifying the power of the political elite.

Italian anarchists were influenced by Mikhail Bakunin, who wrote “the whole system of representative government is an immense fraud resting on this fiction [of political liberty in the popular vote] ... Political power means domination.” (In fact, the “democratized” 1913 elections resulted in no representative gains by the revolutionary or working class parties of Estrema.)

$175

Collection of Documents Regarding Post-Liberation Italian Governance and Elections

[Partito Liberale Italiano; Democrazia Cristiana; et al.]. Collection of Italian Political Pamphlets, Leaflets, and Documents Regarding Post-Liberation Governance, Elections, and the First Italian Republic, ca. 1945-1946.

Comprised of: three mimeographed documents issued in December 1945 in reference to a proclamation by Prime Minister Alcide de Gasperi shortly after his election, one the proclamation, and two from members of the Allied Commission; three Democrazia Cristiana leaflets, ca. 1945, one printed the day of Mussolini’s death; eight issues (with five duplicates) of the Quadrini del Partito Liberale, by Luigi Einaudi, Paolo Serini, Benedetto Croce, and Marcello Soleri, and others, some reissued by the PLI Sezione Piemontese, with two PLI leaflets, one printing the lyrics to the patriotic anthem “Arise Piedmonte.” Turin. Most 1945, a few 1943-1948.

Quadrini del Partito Liberale not found in OCLC.

$350

Group of Italian Resistance Bulletins and Handbills

(Clandestine Press) (Brigate Garibaldi) Group of Italian Resistance Bulletins and Handbills, and a Photograph, ca. 1943-45. [Rome, Turin, et al.]. Totaling thirteen items: two small handbills, printed recto and verso, the first “Ordine del Giorno N. 8 del Comando del distaccamenti e delle Brigate d’Assalto Garibaldi,” and the second, “Bollettino No. 12 Guerra Partigiana,” attributed to Il Comando delle Brigate d’Assalto Garibaldi del Piemonte, both ca. 1944, and a press? photograph of a fascist torture cell. Handbills lightly worn, good; photo center-creased and faded, with typed caption pasted recto, manuscript caption verso, fair. Together with ten mimeographed bulletins from wartime clandestine presses, most single sheet printed recto only, one example [4] pp., another [2] pp., stapled, all toned and fragile, most with creases from prior folds and edge wear, a few with small closed tears and chipping, two with manuscript annotations.

Texts discuss resistance operations in Turin and Northern Italy, the Brigate Garibaldi, partisan and labor actions, the activities of the Corpo volontari della libertà, the French resistance, and the Soviet Union/Eastern front. Some bulletins dated and attributed, including “Il Grido di Spartaco,” a clandestine Communist newspaper; “La Federazione Comunista Torinese”; “Il Costituendo Partito P.R.I.”; and “Il Comitato di Agitazione del Piemonte.”

OCLC locates no specific holdings of any of these items, though relevant archives exist at the Hoover and Library of Congress.

SOLD

Conseils et soins à donner à la chevelure. Traité théorique et pratique

(Cosmetics) (Quackery) Sœur Haydée. Conseils et soins à donner à la chevelure. Traité théorique et pratique [title from front wrap]. [Toulouse]: [Impr. de Berthoumieu], n.d. [1930s]. 10 4-⅜ in x 2-½ in., 64 pp.; some pen annotations, illus. stapled wraps a bit worn.

Lengthy promotional treatise concerning a baldness cure developed by “Sister Haydée” and her ersatz convent.

$45

Grand Torneo Internazionale di Lotte Feminili al Salone Margherita

(Women) (Sport) Grand Torneo Internazionale di Lotte Feminili al Salone Margherita. Rome, 1912. Concertina booklet, closed: 5-½ x 3-⅜ in., illus. with ten portraits of the fighters, from England, Europe, Russia, and the US; some usual wear, esp. at folds.

Promotional booklet for a women’s wrestling tournament held an evening variety show at a well-known Roman theater. Photographs of each contestant are reproduced with captions identifying their last name, nationality, and weight. The earnest, athletic presentation of the “national champions” in this booklet was unusual for a sport regarded largely as entertainment. This style of presentation may have been related to contemporary interest in the international competition of the V Summer Olympiad, which opened the same month

We could not locate any other record of the tournament or the participants. Women’s wrestling was not included as an Olympic sport until 2004.

$900

Eight Jail and Prison Equipment Catalogues

(Trade Catalogues) (Prisons) Decatur Iron and Steel Co., Roanoke Iron and Bridge Works, Southern Steel Co., Van Dorn, and VANCO. Eight Jail and Prison Equipment Catalogues, ca. 1965-1975. All approx. 8-½ x 11 in., ranging from [4] to [12] pp.; profusely illus., each in orig. color wrappers with stab holes from earlier binding, rubbed at spine.

Modern marketing for prison cells and equipment depict the fantastical empty spaces of the architecture of control. Together the catalogues demonstrate the growing sophistication of marketing and design in the emergent prison-industrial complex.

Scarce. Some unrecorded in OCLC or held in fewer than 3 institutions.

$250

Dealers in Patent Rights, Look To Your Interests!

(Broadside) Dealers in Patent Rights, Look To Your Interests! Buy Lechner & Stump’s Celebrated Combination Patent Pie Rimmer, Crimper and Pastry Cutter, an article of absolute utility in every household. Patented Sept. 11, 1866. Sheridan, PA: Lechner & Stump, [1866?]. Single sheet, 13-⅞ x 7 in.; engraved illus. by “Crossoup-Phila.”

Rare post-Civil War broadside with striking illustration of women and children in the kitchen. Crimper manufactured by Lechner & Stump. Four institutional holdings identified: Emory, Harvard, Library Company Phila., and Winterthur.

$250

[O]n the illegality and inexpediency of segregating commercialized vice in St. Louis

(Antiprostitution) (Missouri) Committee of One-hundred for the Suppression of Commercialized Vice in St. Louis. Brief in support of citizens’ memorial to the Board of police commissioners of St. Louis, Missouri, on the illegality and inexpediency of segregating commercialized vice in St. Louis. St. Louis: n.p., 1914. 8vo, 32 pp.; stapled self-wrapper, sl. toned at edges, one small closed tear to front wrap, ex-library stamp and penciled shelf label, very good.

Report on the “fallacy of segregation” and in support of the red light abatement efforts of the St. Louis Police. With many reports from other cities nationwide.

$60

(Antiprostitution) Report of the Commission for the Investigation of the White Slave Traffic [...]

(Antiprostitution) (Sex Trafficking) Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Commission for Investigation of White Slave Traffic. House - No. 2281: Report of the Commission for the Investigation of the White Slave Traffic, So Called. Boston: Wright & Potter, 1914. 8vo, 86 pp.; numerous charts and tables; stapled wrapper with ex-library stamp and penciled shelf label, otherwise very good.

Report on extensive investigation “to determine, so far as is possible, by what means and to what extent women and girls are induced or compelled by others to lead an immoral life …” “to endeavor to devise plans for preventing the evils it finds …” and a draft of bills “as may be necessary to carry its recommendations into effects.”

At the center of the report is a significant amount of sociological research conducted by the commission during interviews with known prostitutes and johns. While refuting entirely the “vague rumors” and myths of “white slavery,” fascinating details emerge about the early life of prostitutes in Massachusetts, and the commercial and penal systems they entered when they began their “immoral life.” With proposals for laws to address the “social evils” of dance halls, street solicitation, hotels, “call houses,” sexually transmitted disease, etc.

Rare in physical format.

$125

(Sexual Health) Dr. McIntosh’s Natural Uterine Supporter

(Sexual Health) Dr. McIntosh’s Natural Uterine Supporter Company. Dr. McIntosh’s Natural Uterine Supporter [title from front wrapper]. [Chicago]: Dr. McIntosh’s Natural Uterine Supporter Company, n.d., ca. 1876-1882. 8vo, [4] pp.; illus., edges soiled with chips and small closed tears, vertical and lateral creases where formerly folded, fair to good.

Promotional leaflet for a vaginal pessary designed to relieve uterine prolapse. Despite the seeming patent medicine hyperbole, the device is quite similar to modern pessaries.

OCLC finds one example? possibly located at Univ. of Rochester.

$90

Presenting tonight the Queen of Pantomime and Statuesque Grace and Beauty, Miss Cora Neilson [...]

(Theater - Travesty). Broadside advertisement for Sunday afternoon and evening performances at Opera House in Amsterdam, NY, “Presenting tonight the Queen of Pantomime and Statuesque Grace and Beauty, Miss Cora Neilson, in her masterly Impersonation, in the Grand Spectacular Military Drama, French Spy, Or, The Siege of Constantini [...].” Amsterdam, NY: n.d. [1888]. Broadside, approx. 18-½ x 5-½ in.; a few small pinholes and central lateral crease from early fold, very good.

Featuring Cora Neilson in the cross-dressing, cross-ethnic, lead role of the colonial fantasy French Spy, by John Thomas Haines. Originated in London in 1831 by the famed French actress Madame Céleste, it was later popularized by Adah Isaacs Menken. The play follows the heroine Mathilde, disguised as both the mute French colonial soldier Henri and the “Arab boy” Hamet, as she attempts to rescue her father and the French army during the siege of “Constantini.” As Henri, Mathilde kisses a woman, has a “terrific broad-sword” fight with Mohammed, and outwits the Bey of Algiers to deliver the city to the French. The broadside illustrates the moment of combat between Mathilde/Henri and Mohammed, and highlights her gender reveal: “It is a woman.”

Related ads and reviews for the same tour in Arkansas, Ohio, and New Jersey allow us to offer a likely date of 1888.

No copies in WorldCat or the trade as of August 2019.

$275

Thirteen Pamphlets, Offprints, and Reprints from the American Social Hygiene Association

(Antiprostitution) Thirteen Pamphlets, Offprints, and Reprints from the American Social Hygiene Association and the Journal of Social Hygiene, 1917-1942. New York, NY: American Social Hygiene Association, 1917-1942. Various sizes, most octavo, 2-40 pp. each, most 8-10 pp.; condition varies, good to near fine, some illus. wrappers, some with ex-library stamps from the Jewish Welfare Board, Gainesville, TX, a few penciled shelf labels.

In 1913 several national antiprostitution and public health organizations united to form the American Social Hygiene Association (ASHA). Based in New York, their founders included reformers and philanthropists such as Jane Addams and John D. Rockefeller, Jr. The ASHA supported campaigns to end prostitution and redlight districts (and their attendant venereal diseases) through scientific inquiry, social reform, and community action. They cooperated with medical organizations, law enforcement, and social welfare groups to develop public information campaigns. The documents in the present collection represent the wide range of ASHA’s activities, with a particular focus on WWI and WWII when the health of enlisted men was used as political leverage against commercialized vice. Includes a pamphlet reprinting a speech by Fiorello LaGuardia that captures the somewhat comedic ambivalence of many politicians to “clean communities.”

They especially emphasize the turn during the 1920s at ASHA and nationally toward punitive, legal solutions to prostitution the demonized women and sidelined charitable or rehabilitation efforts.

$250

Includes:

American Social Hygiene Association. Does Prostitution Breed Crime? Law Enforcement Responsibility in Delinquency Prevention. New York, NY: American Social Hygiene Association, [1947?]. 8-1/2 x 11 in., [4] pp. leaflet, toned. Emphasizing law enforcement solutions.

American Social Hygiene Association. Why Let it Burn? [cover title]. New York, NY: American Social Hygiene Association, 1941. Stapled leaflet, 15 pp.; in illus. color self-wrapper, very good. “Prostitution must be recognized as a Fifth Columnist in our midst.” Although another pamphlet was issued by the ASHA under the same title in 1919, this edition appears updated with new research and arguments relating to America’s wartime concerns.

Six Offprints and Reprints from the Journal of Social Hygiene, 1918-1941. New York: The American Social Hygiene Association, 1918-1941. All octavo, 2-40 pp. each, most 8-10 pp.; some edgewear with small closed tears, ex-libris stamps, most from the Jewish Welfare board, Gainesville Texas, one with penciled shelf label. The longest articles, from 1919 and 1920, offer a history of the antiprostitution movements in New York City (the “Committee of Fourteen”) and California (Redlight Abatement Act). Another article, 1936, addresses the issue of legalized prostitution

American Social Hygiene Association. The Case Against Prostitution. New York, NY: American Social Hygiene Association, 1940. Pamphlet, unfolded approx. 16-½ x 10-¾ in., [12] panels, recto an informational broadside suitable for posting; sl. toned at edges, front panel with ex-library stamp, Jewish Welfare Board, Gainesville, TX. Rare ephemera intended to promote the “clean community environment in which prostitution cannot flourish.” Includes a “practical program” for community action.

Johnson, Bascom; LaGuardia, Fiorello; and Jean B. Pinney. Three American Social Hygiene Association Pamphlets, 1940-1942. 8vo, 8-24 pp. each; one illus., stapled wrappers, sl. toning and edgewear, good.

Reprinted from the Journal for Social Hygiene: How Fares the Battle Against Prostitution (Pinney); Prostitution and Quackery in Relation to Syphyilis Control (Johnson); and “An Address” (LaGuardia).

LaGuardia pamphlet reprints a speech including a jokey intro in which the Mayor seems confused about why he is speaking at a conference about Commercialized Vice and not at a leather or furniture convention.

Kneeland, George J. Commercialized Prostitution and the Use of Property. New York, NY: New York Social Hygiene Society, 1917. 8vo, 8 pp.; ½ in. closed tear on upper edge goes through entire pamphlet; stapled printed wrapper, edges worn, with ex-library stamp and penciled shelf label, fair. Excerpted from Social Hygiene, Vol. II, No. 4 (Oct. 1916).

How We are Defending the Health of Our Soldiers and Sailors: 309 Houses of Shame Closed

(Antiprostitution) (California) (Socialism) Hichborn, Franklin and L.D. Bohnett. Five Informational Leaflets: Redlight Abatement Acts Prove Effective in Other States; Segregation Does Not Segregate and Regulation Does Not Regulate; Source of the Opposition to the Redlight Abatement Act; State Government by Perjury and Forgery; The California Redlight Abatement Law: It’s Provisions and Purpose. San Francisco, CA: Campaign Committee for the Redlight Abatement Bill, 1914. Five leaflets, each approx. 6-⅜ in. x 3-⅜ in., 4, 6, 6, 8, and 8 pp. Together with Franklin Hichborn, Answers to Arguments … Against the Redlight Abatement Act, [California]: n.p., [1914] 8 pp. Most with small ex-libris stamp from the California Commonwealth Club and penciled shelf labels or scattered other marks or edgewear, a couple of small closed tears. Good.

Propagandist description of the controversy arising from California’s Red Light Abatement Act, a.k.a. the Bohnett-Grant Act. The Act was signed into law in April, 1913, but was contested by a statewide voter referendum held in November 1914, where it was affirmed. Like other Red Light Abatement laws, it ended segregated “redlight districts” and transformed public nuisance law to allow the government to take action against landlords whose property was used for brothels or “lewdness.” Importantly it also allowed for any resident citizen of the state to “maintain an action” against a specific property, empowering communities to act directly, without involving law enforcement.

Many high-profile supporters of the Act were Reformists and socialists. The leaflets here are mostly written by journalist Franklin Hichborn, an associate of prominent reformer John Randolph Haynes and his suffragist wife, Doris Haynes. Hichborn takes aim directly at prostitution’s profiteers and the link between capital and sex. One pull quote, from a municipal judge in Portland, OR, sounds almost contemporary in its appeal to move away from “criminal prosecutions, because [they] are usually directed at the pawn in the system while the real culprit, the man who knowingly permitted the use of his property for immoral purposes … is allowed to go unwhipped.”

Together with:

(Antiprostitution) (California) (WWI) State Law Enforcement and Protective League. How We are Defending the Health of Our Soldiers and Sailors: 309 Houses of Shame Closed. San Francisco: State Law Enforcement and Protective League, 1918. Trifold pamphlet [6] pp.; illus. from photos, two small closed tears, edges worn, one small repair?

Exemplary and rare document of the overheated rhetoric in the fight against prostitution and its special urgency during wartime. The League’s purpose is declared to be the protection of men in service and purity of home, primarily through “suppression of the vice exploiter” and “rehabilitation of the vice victim.” The pamphlet is primarily a report on legal actions brought under the Redlight Abatement Act. Seven recently closed “dens of vice” in the San Francisco Bay area are illustrated next to the descriptions of hundreds of others, and evidence of “white slave” trafficking. Not found in OCLC.

$375

Women’s Forum on Prostitution Rights: Program

(Sex Work) (Rights) Women’s Forum on Prostitution Rights. Program. San Francisco: Women’s Forum on Prostitution Rights, [1984]. Single pink sheet, 8-½ x 5-½ in., printed recto and verso, some wear, creases, good.

Verso supplies the four-day program for a conference on prostitution rights in July, 1984 (date from Hooker’s Ball advertisement). Speakers include many well-known advocates and activists for prostitutes’ rights, including Margaret Prescod, Margo St. James, Delores French, Gloria Lockett, et al. Recto advertises the infamous Hooker’s Ball and the Coyote Film Festival.

$30

Opal Correspondence Club Ephemera

(Courtship) (Correspondence) Reasoner, Walter E. [and Opal N. Reasoner]. Opal Correspondence Club Ephemera. Rosiere, New York: Opal Correspondence Club, [1919]. Six items: two personal ad directories, [16] and [8] pp., one dated membership offer, one blank “Gentleman’s Application,” an introductory letter, and a trade card. Overall very good, minor wear at directory spines.

Items presumed to constitute a man’s introductory package to the Opal Correspondence Club, a matrimonial agency. The Club was named after the wife of its president and manager, Walter; Opal Reasoner is also listed as the Manager of the Ladies Department.

The blank application and the personal ads capture the pragmatic aspect, for both men and women, of many lower-middle-class and middle-class marriages in the first quarter of the 20th-century. Emphasis is given to income, inheritance, real estate holdings, children, hereditary disease, and religion. Personal questions somewhat limited: “Are you of good morals?” “Do you prefer city, town, or country life?” The Reasoner’s club was strictly limited to white applicants. The “updated” directory includes the new rule “No Colored People Accepted.”

Walter and Opal were entrepreneurial in other fields. The directory includes advertisements for their “Minette” correspondence photo service and two different pocket multi-tools.

We are unable to locate other references to this agency.

$275

(Trade Card) McDonnell’s Matrimonial Association.

(Courtship) (Trade Card) (Correspondence Marriage) McDonnell’s Matrimonial Association. [Lady Member]. Chicago: n.p., n.d, ca. 1900. 5-⅛ x 3 in., printed recto and verso; soiled with creases, older cellophane holding top corner with small loss.

Advertising a free directory of 2000+ ladies in the US and Canada with a “view to amusement, mutual improvement [and] matrimony.” Including photographs. “Would you like a rich girl, a poor girl, a beautiful woman, a buxom widow, a pretty maiden, a well-educated young lady, a farmer’s daughter, or a good housekeeper? We have them all …”

We are unable to identify other references to Walter McDonnell’s Chicago service.

$125

Radioactivo: Poderoso Fertilizador y Estimulante Para La Vegetación

Banco del Radium [Banque du Radium, Paris]. Radioactivo: Poderoso Fertilizador y Estimulante Para La Vegetación [title from wrapper]. Barcelona: [Banque du Radium] and [R. Cumellas], [1915]. 8vo, 8 pp.; in Spanish, some translated from French, printed in green, with historiated initials, near fine.

Attractive art nouveau promotional booklet for radium soil enrichment, from a period of explosive popular interest in radium. The text compares the “therapeutic” action of radium in agricultural applications to those in human medical treatments—combating unknown “infirmities” and cultivating new vigor.

Published by a Spanish representative for the radio-agricultural firm Banque du Radium, Paris. BDR was established by a friend and sponsor of Marie Curie, the French industrialist Emile Armet de Lisle. Armet de Lisle also published the journal Le Radium.

Uncommon, we locate no other examples of Banque du Radium or Banco del Radium promotional materials in OCLC or the trade.

$225

Tercer Salon Italo: La energia en las artes visuals

Compañía Italo Argentina de Electricidad and Museo de Arte Moderno, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Tercer Salon Italo: La energia en las artes visuals. Exh. Cat. [Buenos Aires]: [La Compañía], 1971. Oblong 8vo, [36] pp.; b/w pls., wrappers lightly worn at extremities.

Catalogue an exhibition of painting and sculpture by Argentinian artists, on the theme of energy.

OCLC locates five copies in North America: Getty, Lib. of Congress, MoMA, Univ. of Texas, and Trenton.

$50

Poem 1 and Poem 2. From Penny Poems, No. 31

Oldenburg, Claes. Poem 1 and Poem 2. Penny Poems, No. 31. New Haven, CT: Penny Poems, 1959. Single-sided sheet, 8-1/2 x 11 in., toned with losses at two corners; typed-signed at bottom, Claes Oldenberg [sic].

Scarce issue of Penny Poems, the daily broadside poetry series founded by Yale grad students in 1959. It was sold at various bookstores for 1¢ and published early work by a number of famous language poets and Beats including Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones), Diane di Prima, and Ron Padgett.

This would appear to be the first published writing by Claes Oldenburg, whose poetry based on found imagery was the subject of a 2012 exhibition by at the Menil Collection, Houston, entitled Strange Eggs: Poems and Cutouts, 1956-1958. The exhibition focused on a transitional period in his artwork, shortly before he made his first iconic Pop sculptures. The humor and absurdity of the “collage-like” poems are evident in these examples.

OCLC records only one holding: Brown; a copy may also be held at Yale.

$750

Las Juventudes Libertarias de Artes Gráficas protestan [...]

[Federación Ibérica de Juventudes Libertarias (FIJL) and Federación Anarquista Ibérica (FAI)] and Comisión pro-Cultura Juventudes Libertarias de Artes Gráficas. Las Juventudes Libertarias de Artes Gráficas protestan del torpedeamiento de que es objeto la Banda Municipal, y piden a las demás Juventudes y amantes de la cultura, que hagan otro tanto. [Barcelona]: n.d. (ca. 1936-38). Broadside, 8-1/2 x 6-1/4 in.; toned and creased.

Impassioned and cheeky defense of the Municipal Band of Barcelona by a youth graphic arts and cultural commission associated with the socialist and anarchist federations during the Civil War. The band was directed by Joan Lamote de Grignon. Lamote was fired after Franco took the city in 1939 and fled to Valencia.

$175

Carteleras. Año I, No.1 - Año 1, No.3 (all published?)

Comite Ejecutivo de Espectaculos Publicos de U.G.T.-C.N.T. Carteleras. Año I, Núm. 1 (24 Enero 1937) to Año I, Núm. 3 (7 Febrero 1937) (all published?). Valencia, Spain: N.p., 1937. Three issues, each a single-sheet 4to, [8] pp.; some wear at edges and creases.

Weekly pamphlet advertising upcoming films and theater schedules in Valencia, published by the UGT-CNT whose unions controlled the theaters and film selection. Uncommon ephemera from the cultural revolution of the Spanish Civil War.

Unrecorded in OCLC.

$175

Comitè Econòmic d’Espectacles Públics

(Cinema) Comitè Econòmic d’Espectacles Públics. [Theater Broadside]. Girona, Spain: [CNT/AIT: Comitè Econòmic d’Espectacles Públics], 1936. 8-3/4 x 12-3/4 in.; toned as expected with a few ink notations, partially backed with paper, good.

Broadside advertising the weekend schedule (Aug. 27-30, 1936) of three Catalonian theaters collectivized by the CNT/AIT during the first month of the Spanish Civil War. The schedule included three class-conscious Hollywood movies: Vivamos de Nuevo (We Live Again, 1934; based on Tolstoy’s Resurrection); El Payaso del Circo (Circus Clown, 1934); and Duro y La Cabeza (St. Louis Kid, 1934).

Unrecorded in OCLC.

$175

Teatre del Poble: La música a través del poeta

Comissió de Cultura de l’Ajuntament de Terrassa. Teatre del Poble: La Música a través del poeta. Terrassa, Spain: Salvatella, 1937. Tri-fold, single sheet program, folded: 8-1/2 x 6 in., [6] pp.; approx. 1/2 in. neat closed tear at bottom edge, else very good; signed in ink by soloists Matilde Viver and A. Pons I Guitart.

A concert of “sublime” music probably prepared or sponsored by the Republican Teatro del Pueblo which organized performances in Catalonia during the Civil War. Representative of a brief avant-garde uprising in a conservative suburb of Barcelona, where some traditionalist artists were imprisoned (including Salvador Salvatella, founder of the press which issued this program?).

$95

On the Question of Homosexuals and the Party

(New Communist Movement – Homosexuality) On the Question of Homosexuals and the Party. N.p., n.d., [1973?]. (2) 8-1/2 x 14 in. sheets, [4] pp.; staple neatly removed, second sheet with minor stains verso.

Doctrinaire “Marxist Leninist defense of the line of the Continuations Committee on homosexuality,” arguing there is a “material basis for the exclusion of homosexuals from the party building movement.” The paper condemns the mores and metaphysics of the “depraved liberal bourgeoisie” and provides a materialistic, dialectical argument against homosexuality. Homosexuality is not a private question, it is a “social relation” that “replaces love and comradeship between the sexes with antagonism and hatred […] There is no way that such degenerates and exploiters can be admitted to […] the revolutionary party.”

The National Continuations Committee was part of the New Communist Movement: it emerged from a 1973 national party-building conference intended to create consensus between a number of Marxist-Leninist organizations. Its stated purpose was “a defense of the science of Marxism-Leninism and […] an all out assault on the CPUSA and all forms of revisionism.” Regional groups were formed to provide issue papers to the Continuations Committee, and this appears to be one of them. Its vehement argument against sexual freedom and the factionalism that undermines class unity is an overwhelming repudiation of progressive politics and the American left.

Primary source document of the mixed history of communism and LGBTQ rights. No copies found in OCLC.

Ref. National Continuations Committee Newsletter No. 1 (January 1974).

$225

65th Commemoration, Paris Commune, at Webster Hall

(Humphrey, Doris) [International Labor Defense, N.Y. District]. 65th Commemoration, Paris Commune at Webster Hall. New York: International Labor Defense, 1936. Flyer, 8-1/4 x 5-3/4; torn and chipped, missing top right corner.

Advertising a March concert commemorating the Paris Commune, with performances by modern dance pioneer Doris Humphrey and her partner Charles Weidman, and a lecture by Robert Minor, political cartoonist and a leader of the American Communist Party.

$65

Seven leaves of hand-painted wallpaper designs

(Decorative Art) (Spain) Seven leaves of hand-painted wallpaper designs. [Catalonia]: n.p., n.d. [late 18th century, ca. 1787].

Ink, gouache, and graphite on laid paper with Honig and Van der Ley watermarks, each leaf trimmed to approx. 10-1/2 x 8-1/2 in. or sl. larger; all signed or graded either recto or verso, most by the same hand in ink, two with additional graphite signatures; one with minor water stain at edge, otherwise very good.

The leaves appear to be prize-winning examples or tests submitted for competition, perhaps by students at a professional arts school in Catalonia. They are all attributed to or signed by one of five artists: Francisco Coromina, Joseph Coromina, Joseph Fontanelles, Gaspar Ribó, and Jayme Trens. The floral and pictorial designs are expertly executed with fine detail, suggesting professional craftsmanship. Beautiful and unique examples of the rich decorative arts tradition in Catalonia.

Dated examples by Fontanelles in another collection allow us to tentatively establish a date circa 1787.

$1750

Apóstrofes: Revista de la Escuela de Periodismo Universidad Católica. Año I, No. 1–No. 3

[Chile] [Student Movement] Apóstrofes: Revista de la Escuela de Periodismo Universidad Católica. Año I, No. 1 (May 1982)–No. 3 (Sept.-Oct. 1982) (all published?). Santiago, Chile: 1982. 8vo, three issues: 23 pp., [25] pp., [21] pp.; side-stapled mimeograph with illus. wrappers, b/w reproductions of orig. graphics, including cartoons, collage, and photography, light edge-wear and toning at extremities, No. 2 toned, front wrap with small crease.

When the left-wing Popular Unity party (led by Salvador Allende) came to power in 1970, they reached an agreement to undo previous limits on the freedom of the press in Chile. This brief period of pluralism was silenced by the Pinochet coup in 1973, which ushered in not only an era of censorship, persecution, and state-sponsored journalism, but also a period in which opposition journalists were imprisoned, tortured, and “disappeared.”

It is within this context that students at the Journalism School at Santiago’s Catholic University began publishing this short-lived serial, questioning the role and relevance of the professional journalist in Chile. Beginning as a general inquiry into the conditions of journalism and teaching, the tone shifts, rejecting university and national hierarchies and censorship. No. 3’s headline “Renacer del Movimiento Estudiantil,” declares the rebirth of the student movement following the arrest and torture of Marcela Palma, secretary general of El Centro de Estudiantes de la Universidad Católica (and sister of the leftist paramilitary Ricardo Palma). Articles report on colleagues in exile and the duty of the journalist to justice and critical thinking.

No copies found in OCLC or direct searches of Chilean national online catalogues.

$275

Recueil des instruments de chirurgie orthopédie et mobiliers

[Trade Catalogue]. [Medicine]. Maison Mathieu. Recueil des instruments de chirurgie orthopédie et mobiliers: nouvellement construits ou perfectionnés. Année 3, No. 2 (Sept. 1908). Paris: 1908. 8vo, 16 pp.; illus. with photographic reproductions and technical drawings; orig. printed wrapper, contents neatly removed from staples, wrapper toned with light wear at extremities; additional plate and advertisement laid in.

Instruments of surgery, predominantly for amputation, and prosthetics. Add’l plate with 2 graphic images of an amputation.

OCLC locates no holdings with this issue statement.

$45

Books from the estate of Mark Tobey

[Tobey, Mark.] Glover/Hayes. Books from the estate of Mark Tobey. Seattle: 1982. 4to, 12 pp.; stapled mimeographed sales list of 143 books “signed by, or inscribed to, Mark Tobey,” dated in pen, minor creases from folds, good condition.

We can find no other record of this sale of books from the American abstract painter’s estate. The annotated list describes signatures and inscriptions.

$75

Dara Birnbaum: Video

Birnbaum, Dara and Erkki Huhlama. Dara Birnbaum: Video. Catalogue for an exhibition held at Norrtälje Konsthall, April 8-June 10, 1995. Norrtälje, Sweden: Norrtälje Konsthall, 1995.

Folded single sheet exh. cat. with color illus., opens to poster, folded: 6-1/2 x 6-1/2 in. open: 26 x 39 in.; outside panels sl. wear, else very good.

$25

Publicité Divers

Publicité Divers [title from spine]. [Bordeaux, France]: 1939.

4to (10 x 12.5 in.), [112] pp.; cloth, spine with gilt title and date.

Professional? scrapbook album with approximately 90 vintage examples of graphic design mounted on 39 leaves, including menus; packaging for luxury goods and comestibles; personal calling cards; advertisements for automobiles and auto parts, textile, and machine companies; coupon books and stamps; and events, most for companies and brands in Bordeaux, many in color, all exemplifying French Art Deco design’s integration of bold geometries, angular composition, and modern typography. A majority of the examples are numbered consecutively from 162-244 with a discreet stamp. Gilt letters “C-L” on spine—contents loosely alphabetical, by product, not proper name (e.g., café, charbon de bois, chocolat, fromage, lessive). Many folding examples, most very good, some with areas of discoloration or wrinkled from paste. Album date is handwritten on first leaf in pencil, though some of the advertisements refer specifically to 1938.

More photographs available on request.

$450