June 2021 Catalogue

56 S c i e n c e & M e d i c i n e • J u n e 2 0 2 1 “The First Important English Handbook On Birth Control” 52. STOPES, Marie Carmichael. Contraception. London, 1923. Octavo, original green cloth, dust jacket. $3200. Click for more info First edition of the first British textbook on the theory, history, and provision of birth control by birth control advocate and sexologist Marie Stopes, the author of Married Love, in very scarce original dust jacket. “As a scientist, [Marie] Stopes is still a figure of some interest. Her major claim to fame, however, rests on her work as birth control advocate and sex educator. She played a unique and essential role in publicizing contraception and making it a topic for discussion” (DNB). Stopes offered medical and legal professionals the tools (and perhaps permission) to deal with contraception, popularizing the idea that contraception should no longer be taboo and that healthy, happy, desired babies were the proper outcome for British women. “The first important English handbook on birth control” (Garrison-Morton 1641.2). Book with only light rubbing to extremities, dust jacket with faintest staining and light rubbing and toning to extremities. A near-fine copy.