ONAN ESCHEWED - Rick Grunder

on glossy paper: eight men and four women; followed by three more pages of
recommendations by men without portraits. Orig. maroon cloth blind-stamped
with author & title on front board plus "Purity and Truth. Self and Sex Series."
Gilt-lettered spine. Binding dull and moderately worn; internally very good but
for foxing and some wear at the bottom of the first few leaves. $30
BACKGROUND ITEM ONLY, to accompany this series. While I did not spot overt
references to masturbation, Rev. Stall worries at length in Chapter VI ("Marital
Moderation") about how often a couple should have sex, and what constitutes
over-indulgence. He fulfills Garrison Keilor's modern radio witticisms about
Lutherans loving to be miserable. "Do not wait [indulging in too-frequent sex
with your wife] until you have the pronounced effects of backache, lassitude,
giddiness, dimness of sight, noises in the ears, numbness of fingers and paralysis.
Note your own condition the next day very carefully. . . ." (pp. 95-96)
98 STALL, Sylvanus. . . . WHAT A YOUNG MAN OUGHT TO KNOW. By Sylvanus
Stall, D.D. Author of "What a Young Boy Ought to Know," "What a Young Husband
Ought to Know," "What a Man of 45 Ought to Know," "Methods of Church Work,"
"Five-Minute Object Sermons to Children," "Talks to the King's Children," "Faces
Toward the Light," etc. "The Glory of Young Men is Their Strength." [at head: PURITY AND
TRUTH]. Philadelphia, London, Toronto: The Vir Publishing Company, [c. 1897
by Sylvanus Stall].
17 cm. xxvi, [21]-281, [20 (ads)] pp. + frontispiece portrait of the author preceded
by portraits and "Commendations from Eminent Men": seventeen in all, thirteen
of them with portraits on glossy paper. Maroon cloth blind-stamped with author
& title on front board plus "Purity and Truth. Self and Sex Series." Gilt-lettered
spine. Rather dull and moderately worn, with an unsightly bright water spot on
the front board. Internally very good. Presentation inscription on front free
endpaper from "Father" to his son, September 16, 1904. $40
MASTURBATION, pp. 59-62, 72-82. By a doctor of divinity, with the expected
moralistic overtones. Rev. Stall does warn at length against quacks, however,
recommending moderate approaches to "treatment," and regarding nocturnal
emissions as normal if they are not excessive. "Every man should . . . seek to
reduce emissions to the minimum, and in every way seek to reabsorb and use in
his own system the sexual fluid which is so important to his highest physical,
intellectual and moral well-being." (p. 82; compare to item 71 Matteson)
99 [another edition - What a Young Man Ought to Know.] Same title and imprint as
above, but at head: "NEW REVISED EDITION." Copyright on verso of title, 1904, by
Sylvanus Stall.
103