Ideal Marriage: Its Physiology and Technique Hardcover - 1930

New York: Random House, 1930. First Printing of First American Edition. Hardcover. Very Good+/Lacking. xxvi, 323 pp. ill. (some color). 22 cm. Hardcover. Publisher's original brick red cloth over boards, spine with gilt lettering inset against black with gilt decoration. Book Condition: wear to extremities, but generally very mild; a blemish to upper cover, lightly pushed spine ends, bent corners but just; interior text-block pristine; binding rock solid, topstain unmarked. The very rare true first printing of this important milestone of sexual enlightenment (subsequent printings are all very clearly indicated). I remember reading about this book years ago in a Roz Chast interview; she maintained that this was the book one's parents would leave out so to communicate the birds and the bees. Neither party was required endure the mortification of the facts of life talk. For those who don't know what life was like before the internet it's practically impossible to imagine. Absolutely bracing in its frankness, exhaustive in its coverage, and with zero judgement. Eight full page plates, introduction by J.J. Abraham, translated from the original Dutch by Stella Browne.