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<b>Bonhams:</b> MANDELSHTAM, OSIP. 1891-1938. Autograph Manuscript, 2 pp, [Petersburg,] January 1913, entitled

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A Sold Out Catalogue from deHartington and Weiss The thankfully unillustrated catalogue on onanism. By Michael Stillman Here is a catalogue unlike any others we have reviewed. It is unique both for its subject and the fact that it is the first catalogue which sold out before we even received it! More about that and the buyer later on, but first we take a look at the catalogue itself. It is offered by Michael DeHartington of London and Burton Weiss of Berkeley. The title is simply Onanism. For most, that term probably is not understood. Those who know are smirking. The subheading enlightens us: The masturbation panic 1756-1973. It must have been serious, as that's an awfully long time for a panic to go on. Actually, you might think a topic like this would not have been discussed that much in public. You would be wrong. As this catalogue elucidates, the topic was the subject of much discussion, or at least of much literature. Why is a mystery. For whatever reason, the practice became a sin in the eyes of prudish theologians and others, which in turn led to a field of quackery "science" which attempted to convince young people it would result in all sorts of medical catastrophes. Of course there was no evidence for this, but as with patent medicine, no evidence was required. So, we have this body of literature, designed to scare people, either with quack medical claims or hellish theological threats. Of course, none of this had any impact, people behaving as they always did, but it is still interesting to listen to the hysterical writers tilt at their chosen windmill. Here are a few samples from these works. Pastor Sylvanus Stall attempted to instill fear in the hearts of young men in 1897 in What a Young Man Ought to Know. Along with undermining physical powers, destroying health, and bringing on ruin, regret and remorse, Stall informs his readers the "evil practice" can, "in some instances bring softening of the brain, weakening the intellect, and convert its unfortunate victim into an imbecile, thus preparing himself either for the insane asylum or an early place in the cemetery." One wonders if this was the cause of Stall's own imbecility. While young men were usually the target audience for these publications, women were not spared. Augustus Gardner, an MD no less, informs us in Conjugal Relationships as regards Personal Health... (1918), "much of the worthlessness, lassitude and mental and physical feebleness attributable to the modern woman are to be ascribed to these habits as their initial cause." I always wondered what made modern women this way. As long as we are picking on women, another MD, John Cowan, in The Science of a New Life, quoting a Dr. J.C. Jackman (seriously), observes, "I never knew a girl to eat lime off the wall, or to chew up her slate-pencils, who was not to a greater or less extent a victim of this practice." Come to think of it, I have never known any girls who ate lime off of walls who weren't either. Is this why they call the British limeys?
A Sold Out Catalogue from deHartington and Weiss none For those who question the accuracy of these claims, William Acton uses the classic response in The Functions and Disorders of the Reproductive Organs... Says Acton, "That insanity is a consequence of this habit is now beyond a doubt." Therefore, the claims need no longer be challenged. Many of the arguments skipped the pseudoscience and went straight to pseudotheology. Reverend Spencer Elliott in What Makes a Man: a Straight Talk to Boys (1917) explains, "God has decreed that the powers of sex must be rested entirely until manhood is reached. Otherwise manhood may never come at all." How he divined this is not clear. Father Philip Salvatori provides a more "reasoned" yet frightening argument in Practical Instruction for New Confessors (1885). In a compelling bit of twisted logic, he first asks if you had to pay for this "shameful and brutal pleasure" by having to stick your hand in a fire for an hour, would that not cure you? Well then, "But holy faith! Have you not the assurance...that by indulging in any of those filthy pleasures, you deserve not merely to keep your hand in the fire, but to have your entire body plunged and buried in the midst of the flames of hell? And this not merely for a single hour...but for hundreds, for thousands, for millions of years... for all eternity... without the slightest hope of escape? Think of this, then, when the heat of your passions is luring you to sin." Well, as long as you put it that way... Perhaps you believe somewhere between here and eternity God will forget your sin and let you out early. Don't count on it warns F. Arthur Sibley in Private Knowledge for Boys (1913). "Every sin, whether in thought or deed, is recorded in Nature's book, and will have to be paid for." Great. Now even if you resist but so much as think it you will be condemned. Take that, Jimmy Carter! Sibley cleverly accounts for the lack of any noticeable impact from the behavior by noting, "Not until the debts have long accumulated is payment sometimes demanded. Then the punishment is heavy and severe indeed." While most of the authors of these works are not exactly household names, here is one you know: Dr. John Harvey Kellogg. Kellogg, in Man, the Masterpiece, or, Plain Truths Plainly Told, about Boyhood, Youth, and Manhood (1894) warns that such behavior shows on a person's face, and, "How few faces portray a character unstained by lust, unsoiled by moral filth!" Yes, this is the same Dr. James Kellogg who invented the cornflake. We will finish with an appropriate concluding comment from the aforementioned Dr. Sibley in Youth and Sex: Dangers and Safeguards for Girls and Boys (1913). In a fit of melodrama, Dr. Sibley writes, "...when the hand that writes these lines has long been cold in death may the message which it speeds this day breathe peace and strength into many an eager heart." Sibley's hand has undoubtedly by now long since joined his brain in cold death, but his words live on, in this most unusual and interesting of catalogues.
A Sold Out Catalogue from deHartington and Weiss none Now for the purchaser...in an insert, Michael deHartington and Burton Weiss inform us that the entire collection was sold en bloc to Cornell University. Perhaps Cornell will use it to warn the young men and women who attend their wonderful college of the dangers lurking in the dark recesses of their dormitory rooms. We thank Burton Weiss, Bookseller, for sharing this catalogue with us. He may be reached in Berkeley, California, at 510-525-4377, email burtoni@pacbell.net. He specializes in the Spanish Civil War, lesbian and gay literature, modern literature in English, Spanish and Latin American literature, and leftist poetry. Weiss also notes that he sees no honor in selling books for the highest recorded price, but prefers offering the lowest prices. Though the collection was sold prior to the catalogue being printed, the booksellers decided to go forward with a limited run (100 copies) to be available as a bibliography of this unusual material. You will undoubtedly need to act quickly if you would like to order one of the remaining copies. Priced at $45.

A Sold Out Catalogue from deHartington and Weiss

The thankfully unillustrated catalogue on onanism.

By Michael Stillman

Here is a catalogue unlike any others we have reviewed. It is unique both for its subject and the fact that it is the first catalogue which sold out before we even received it! More about that and the buyer later on, but first we take a look at the catalogue itself. It is offered by Michael DeHartington of London and Burton Weiss of Berkeley. The title is simply Onanism. For most, that term probably is not understood. Those who know are smirking.

The subheading enlightens us: The masturbation panic 1756-1973. It must have been serious, as that's an awfully long time for a panic to go on. Actually, you might think a topic like this would not have been discussed that much in public. You would be wrong. As this catalogue elucidates, the topic was the subject of much discussion, or at least of much literature. Why is a mystery. For whatever reason, the practice became a sin in the eyes of prudish theologians and others, which in turn led to a field of quackery "science" which attempted to convince young people it would result in all sorts of medical catastrophes. Of course there was no evidence for this, but as with patent medicine, no evidence was required. So, we have this body of literature, designed to scare people, either with quack medical claims or hellish theological threats. Of course, none of this had any impact, people behaving as they always did, but it is still interesting to listen to the hysterical writers tilt at their chosen windmill. Here are a few samples from these works.

Pastor Sylvanus Stall attempted to instill fear in the hearts of young men in 1897 in What a Young Man Ought to Know. Along with undermining physical powers, destroying health, and bringing on ruin, regret and remorse, Stall informs his readers the "evil practice" can, "in some instances bring softening of the brain, weakening the intellect, and convert its unfortunate victim into an imbecile, thus preparing himself either for the insane asylum or an early place in the cemetery." One wonders if this was the cause of Stall's own imbecility.

While young men were usually the target audience for these publications, women were not spared. Augustus Gardner, an MD no less, informs us in Conjugal Relationships as regards Personal Health... (1918), "much of the worthlessness, lassitude and mental and physical feebleness attributable to the modern woman are to be ascribed to these habits as their initial cause." I always wondered what made modern women this way.

As long as we are picking on women, another MD, John Cowan, in The Science of a New Life, quoting a Dr. J.C. Jackman (seriously), observes, "I never knew a girl to eat lime off the wall, or to chew up her slate-pencils, who was not to a greater or less extent a victim of this practice." Come to think of it, I have never known any girls who ate lime off of walls who weren't either. Is this why they call the British limeys?

A Sold Out Catalogue from deHartington and Weiss

none

For those who question the accuracy of these claims, William Acton uses the classic response in The Functions and Disorders of the Reproductive Organs... Says Acton, "That insanity is a consequence of this habit is now beyond a doubt." Therefore, the claims need no longer be challenged.

Many of the arguments skipped the pseudoscience and went straight to pseudotheology. Reverend Spencer Elliott in What Makes a Man: a Straight Talk to Boys (1917) explains, "God has decreed that the powers of sex must be rested entirely until manhood is reached. Otherwise manhood may never come at all." How he divined this is not clear.

Father Philip Salvatori provides a more "reasoned" yet frightening argument in Practical Instruction for New Confessors (1885). In a compelling bit of twisted logic, he first asks if you had to pay for this "shameful and brutal pleasure" by having to stick your hand in a fire for an hour, would that not cure you? Well then, "But holy faith! Have you not the assurance...that by indulging in any of those filthy pleasures, you deserve not merely to keep your hand in the fire, but to have your entire body plunged and buried in the midst of the flames of hell? And this not merely for a single hour...but for hundreds, for thousands, for millions of years... for all eternity... without the slightest hope of escape? Think of this, then, when the heat of your passions is luring you to sin." Well, as long as you put it that way...

Perhaps you believe somewhere between here and eternity God will forget your sin and let you out early. Don't count on it warns F. Arthur Sibley in Private Knowledge for Boys (1913). "Every sin, whether in thought or deed, is recorded in Nature's book, and will have to be paid for." Great. Now even if you resist but so much as think it you will be condemned. Take that, Jimmy Carter! Sibley cleverly accounts for the lack of any noticeable impact from the behavior by noting, "Not until the debts have long accumulated is payment sometimes demanded. Then the punishment is heavy and severe indeed."

While most of the authors of these works are not exactly household names, here is one you know: Dr. John Harvey Kellogg. Kellogg, in Man, the Masterpiece, or, Plain Truths Plainly Told, about Boyhood, Youth, and Manhood (1894) warns that such behavior shows on a person's face, and, "How few faces portray a character unstained by lust, unsoiled by moral filth!" Yes, this is the same Dr. James Kellogg who invented the cornflake.

We will finish with an appropriate concluding comment from the aforementioned Dr. Sibley in Youth and Sex: Dangers and Safeguards for Girls and Boys (1913). In a fit of melodrama, Dr. Sibley writes, "...when the hand that writes these lines has long been cold in death may the message which it speeds this day breathe peace and strength into many an eager heart." Sibley's hand has undoubtedly by now long since joined his brain in cold death, but his words live on, in this most unusual and interesting of catalogues.

A Sold Out Catalogue from deHartington and Weiss

none

Now for the purchaser...in an insert, Michael deHartington and Burton Weiss inform us that the entire collection was sold en bloc to Cornell University. Perhaps Cornell will use it to warn the young men and women who attend their wonderful college of the dangers lurking in the dark recesses of their dormitory rooms.

We thank Burton Weiss, Bookseller, for sharing this catalogue with us. He may be reached in Berkeley, California, at 510-525-4377, email burtoni@pacbell.net. He specializes in the Spanish Civil War, lesbian and gay literature, modern literature in English, Spanish and Latin American literature, and leftist poetry. Weiss also notes that he sees no honor in selling books for the highest recorded price, but prefers offering the lowest prices.

Though the collection was sold prior to the catalogue being printed, the booksellers decided to go forward with a limited run (100 copies) to be available as a bibliography of this unusual material. You will undoubtedly need to act quickly if you would like to order one of the remaining copies. Priced at $45.