Married Love by Marie Stopes, First Edition (5 results)

Condition: Good. First edition (ie first impression), hardback. 12mo (19cm by 13cm), xv, 214pp, 8pp adverts. Original brown cloth, gilt titling to the spine. The binding is a little rubbed and bumped, and there is some foxing to the preliminary pages and the edges of the text block; overall, this book is in good condition.

8vo, Original purple cloth, titles to spine gilt. With the dust jacket. Integral 6-page publishers' ads at rear. Spine rolled, light grey bloom to cloth, heavy spotting to edge of the text block, occasional spots to contents. A good copy in the jacket with a large chip affecting the heads of the spine and upper panels, including the title, as well as dampstain and spotting and some smaller chips and splits. First edition, first impression of this work on problems with sexual health, including "excessive virility", "frigidity", premature ejaculation, and mid-life changes. £35.

Blue Cloth Hard Cover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good -. First American Edition. First American Edition "REPRINTED FROM THE NINETEENTH ENGLISH EDITION' "AUTHORIZED EDITION" apparently rare copy of american Putnam edition from 1931 with Dust Jacket of which no other copies appear to be for sale, 1 inch tear in the dust jacket.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. No Jacket. 1st Edition. Later edn of 1918 1stedn; 12mo burgundy cloth, black titles, SIGNED by prev owner Floyd Covington to fep, rear spine strip tearing, spine tape repaired, old paper label to spine, ow VG/ndj: 183pp, appends; A new contribuiton to the solution of sex difficulties. One of the best known sex manuals ever written. A lyrical evocation of marital love with a no-nonsense and detailed account of sexual intercourse and sexual pleasure that was a sensation when it was published in 1918. /ASSOCIATION: Prevowner Floyd C. Covington [1901-1989] was a leader in Los Angeles s black community for more than fifty years. A native of Denver, Colorado, Covington endured many traumatic experiences during his childhood. The 1910 manuscript census indicates that Covington s father did not live with his family. Covington s mother Lulu died before he reached adulthood, and Covington was adopted by Reverend and Mrs. James Logan Craw. Craw s ministry took the family to Los Angeles, Spokane, Seattle, and Topeka, Kansas.After graduating from high school in Seattle in 1923, Covington entered Washburn College, in Topeka, Kansas. He earned his B.A. in sociology in 1927. Covington won a National Urban League fellowship that allowed him to complete an M.A. in sociology and economics at the University of Pittsburgh in 1928. Following the completion of his formal education, Covington moved to Los Angeles, where he was hired as the membership secretary of the 28th Street Branch of the YMCA. He later took the position of industrial secretary of the Los Angeles branch of the National Urban League, and in 1931 he was appointed executive director of the branch, a position he held until 1950. Covington established good working relationships with many other community leaders, leaders of other ethnic communities, and local elected officials. During World War II Los Angeles Mayor Fletcher Bowron appointed Covington to the Mayor s Committee on Home Front Unity, whose goal was to reduce racial and ethnic tensions in the city. In 1947 California Governor Earl Warren appointed Covington to a special commission to investigate crime and delinquency.Covington resigned his post with the Urban League in 1950 and accepted a position as a racial relations advisor with the Federal Housing Administration. He worked for the FHA until 1975.Soon after he arrived in Los Angeles, Covington married Willa Alma Greene (1902-1995). Alma Covington taught and served as an elementary school principal in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley honored Floyd and Willa Covington for their service to the city s people by proclaiming April 24, 1984 Floyd and Willa Covington Day.

Signed limited edition, number 9 of 540 copies signed by the author on the frontispiece; this additionally a presentation copy, inscribed by its infamous author to her son's nurse using her affectionate nickname, "To dear Niss, with the Author's love. Xmas 1925", on the front free endpaper. Sister Phyllis Jones, or "Niss", was nurse to the young Harry Stopes-Roe, born on 27 March 1924, the first surviving son of Stopes (1880-1958) and her second husband Humphrey Verdon Roe, the financial backer of Married Love. As the annotated envelopes of the Stopes home videos (now housed in the Wellcome Library) prove, Jones was an integral part of family life in Harry's early years; tapes are labelled "6. Aut. 1925 Niss & Dora & Buffkins" (Buffkins being Harry's nickname), "8. Jan. 1926 Snow at Givons. Niss, Marie, Buffkins & Father on sledge. Also Wuffles (the Chow) and goat", "19. 9. 1929 On rocks at Portland; includes Niss". Stopes was a famously protective mother - she advertised to adopt a companion for Harry, "a little boy between the ages of 20 months and 2 1/4 years. The child must be absolutely healthy, intelligent, and not circumcised", and was exacting about his diet and clothing - so for Niss to have been hired for such a position, and clearly trusted, is notable. This makes this a touching and close association copy of Married Love, Stopes's controversial guide to sex, first published in 1918. Praised and vilified in almost equal measure for its frank discussion of sexual relationships and its support of married couples using birth control, it proved to be a "runaway best-seller" (ODNB) and was banned from importation into the US for thirteen years. The signed limited edition is the fifteenth edition overall. See Wellcome Library online catalogue, "Family films of Marie Stopes", 1925, shelfmark 5301D. Octavo. Monochrome portrait frontispiece with tissue guard. Original pale grey cloth, bevelled boards, spine and front board lettered in gilt with elaborate knotwork decoration in gilt, top edge gilt, others uncut. Spine ends bumped, front board lightly bowed, endpapers slightly toned with occasional faint foxing to contents, else a bright, clean copy, the cloth particularly fresh.