Seduction of the Innocent, Love & Death, Parade of Pleasure and more!

[esquirecomics]

Here's a doozy. It's two bound books containing every issue of The Saturday Review of Literature for 1948. Why is that a big deal? In eight magazines in these volumes, you'll find the anti-comics crusade starting to take off.First off, early in 1948, there was a "Town Meeting of the Air" in which Saturday Review's John Mason Brown squared off against Lil' Abner's Al Capp, in a debate over the positive and negative aspects of comics. A transcript of Brown's arguments was presented in the March 20, 1948 Saturday Review of Literature, in an article titled "The Case Against the Comics". Capp's rebuttal was presented as "The Case for the Comics." Both Brown's and Capp's pieces were presented under a banner "American Comics Become a Battlefield". The same issue of SRL contains a review of Coulton Waugh's "The Comics" and a reproduction of a Krazy Kat cartoon.The next item of note: when Wertham began attacking comics publicly, the first article he wrote for a large national audience was in the May 29, 1948 Saturday Review of Literature. "The Comics, Very Funny" presented Wertham's case that comics were detrimental to American youth. He quoted from comics like Classics Illustrated #44, and presented illustrations (taken from Jo-Jo #15 and True Crime V1#2) to make his case. This kicked off a long debate about comics in the pages of the magazine.Subsequent to these articles, the "Letters to the Editor" in the Saturday Review contained both positive and negative responses to Wertham's assertions. Among the most intriguing responses was a letter from 14-year-old David Pace Wigransky, who intelligently and vigorously defended comics.Wigransky's letter prompted additional responses from readers, and eventually even became part of the Congressional testimony during the 1954 Senate hearings. In all, there are 8 different issues of the Saturday Review of Literature in 1948 related to the anti-comics sentiment that was starting to gain steam. In these two books, you get all 8 and more... the entire year of Saturday Review of Literature in two library-bound books.$70, plus $10.95 Priority Mail Flat Rate shipping in the U.S.

Per PM,

[esquirecomics]

The Brain as an Organ, by Fredric Wertham. This is the hard-to-find 1934 textbook Wertham wrote. Large amount of library tape on the cover, and with the typical library markings, but nearly impossible to find in any shape at all. Note that this one was given to the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania by Wertham himself, as indicated by the card pasted into the front cover.

$75

 

Per PM,

[esquirecomics]

Significance of the Physical Constitution in Mental Disease. Wertham's earliest published work, from way back in 1926. Back then he was just an associate in Psychiatry, and his last name was still Wertheimer. Wertham wrote this with Florence Hesketh, who would later become his wife.

$35

 

Per PM,

[SOTIcollector]

Here's a doozy. It's two bound books containing every issue of The Saturday Review of Literature for 1948. Why is that a big deal? In eight magazines in these volumes, you'll find the anti-comics crusade starting to take off.

 

First off, early in 1948, there was a "Town Meeting of the Air" in which Saturday Review's John Mason Brown squared off against Lil' Abner's Al Capp, in a debate over the positive and negative aspects of comics. A transcript of Brown's arguments was presented in the March 20, 1948 Saturday Review of Literature, in an article titled "The Case Against the Comics". Capp's rebuttal was presented as "The Case for the Comics." Both Brown's and Capp's pieces were presented under a banner "American Comics Become a Battlefield". The same issue of SRL contains a review of Coulton Waugh's "The Comics" and a reproduction of a Krazy Kat cartoon.

 

The next item of note: when Wertham began attacking comics publicly, the first article he wrote for a large national audience was in the May 29, 1948 Saturday Review of Literature. "The Comics, Very Funny" presented Wertham's case that comics were detrimental to American youth. He quoted from comics like Classics Illustrated #44, and presented illustrations (taken from Jo-Jo #15 and True Crime V1#2) to make his case. This kicked off a long debate about comics in the pages of the magazine.

 

Subsequent to these articles, the "Letters to the Editor" in the Saturday Review contained both positive and negative responses to Wertham's assertions. Among the most intriguing responses was a letter from 14-year-old David Pace Wigransky, who intelligently and vigorously defended comics.

Wigransky's letter prompted additional responses from readers, and eventually even became part of the Congressional testimony during the 1954 Senate hearings.

 

In all, there are 8 different issues of the Saturday Review of Literature in 1948 related to the anti-comics sentiment that was starting to gain steam. In these two books, you get all 8 and more... the entire year of Saturday Review of Literature in two library-bound books.

 

$70, plus $10.95 Priority Mail Flat Rate shipping in the U.S.

 

 

Per PM,

 

 

The Brain as an Organ, by Fredric Wertham. This is the hard-to-find 1934 textbook Wertham wrote. Large amount of library tape on the cover, and with the typical library markings, but nearly impossible to find in any shape at all. Note that this one was given to the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania by Wertham himself, as indicated by the card pasted into the front cover.

$75

 

Per PM,

 

 

 

Significance of the Physical Constitution in Mental Disease. Wertham's earliest published work, from way back in 1926. Back then he was just an associate in Psychiatry, and his last name was still Wertheimer. Wertham wrote this with Florence Hesketh, who would later become his wife.

$35

 

Per PM,

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks again, Mark!

[capt_comics]

Seduction of the Innocent, 1st print, 2nd state (no bibliography... but I'll include a photocopy of the bibliography) with dust jacket. All 16 illustration pages present. Dust jacket shows wear, as evident in the photos. Spine broken at title page as evident in photos. Otherwise extremely clean and solid copy of the ultimate anti-comics book. $195

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The R colophon on the title page indicates genuine first print.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[DCman]

I'll take the SOTI with the bibliography

[The Amazing Chump]

I've always found the second print curious, and here's why.

We know that when the first print went to press, it had a bibliography on one leaf (pp. 399-400). After it was printed, the publisher ordered that the bibliography be removed. Wertham believed that this action was taken because the book's publisher (Rinehart) feared lawsuits by the comic book publishers listed in the bibliography.

So the bibliography leaf was removed from almost all first printings of SOTI. On a typical first print, you can open the book to where pp. 399-400 should be, and you can see a stub where the offending leaf was removed. Given this history, the stub in the first print makes sense to me.

However, at some point a second print of SOTI was created. When you check where pages 399-400 should be on the second print, you also find a stub indicating that the offending leaf has been removed. Why was the second print even printed with that page? Why didn't they simply replace the bibliography leaf with a blank leaf before printing? If you have any knowledge, or even workable theories, about why this stub exists in second prints, I'd love to hear about it.

 

I have a theory. Granted, I work a little with printers, but any actual printer would trump anything I would have to say. In any case, here goes...

 

With the printers I work with, the difficult, time-consuming and costly (most importantly) part of the process is creating the printing plates. I would imagine this was even more true back in the 50's pre-digital when you're dealing with either typesetting or acid-etching. Combine that with cheap labor costs it might have been cheaper to remove that page after printing instead of crating a new plate. Especially when you consider that a single printing plate can be four, eight or sixteen printed pages when the book is assembled and cut. Just mu guess, anyway

[Mike's Rack]

I've always found the second print curious, and here's why.

We know that when the first print went to press, it had a bibliography on one leaf (pp. 399-400). After it was printed, the publisher ordered that the bibliography be removed. Wertham believed that this action was taken because the book's publisher (Rinehart) feared lawsuits by the comic book publishers listed in the bibliography.

So the bibliography leaf was removed from almost all first printings of SOTI. On a typical first print, you can open the book to where pp. 399-400 should be, and you can see a stub where the offending leaf was removed. Given this history, the stub in the first print makes sense to me.

However, at some point a second print of SOTI was created. When you check where pages 399-400 should be on the second print, you also find a stub indicating that the offending leaf has been removed. Why was the second print even printed with that page? Why didn't they simply replace the bibliography leaf with a blank leaf before printing? If you have any knowledge, or even workable theories, about why this stub exists in second prints, I'd love to hear about it.

 

I have a theory. Granted, I work a little with printers, but any actual printer would trump anything I would have to say. In any case, here goes...

 

With the printers I work with, the difficult, time-consuming and costly (most importantly) part of the process is creating the printing plates. I would imagine this was even more true back in the 50's pre-digital when you're dealing with either typesetting or acid-etching. Combine that with cheap labor costs it might have been cheaper to remove that page after printing instead of crating a new plate. Especially when you consider that a single printing plate can be four, eight or sixteen printed pages when the book is assembled and cut. Just mu guess, anyway

 

Interesting,

 

I have a theory as well. Perhaps the published had shipped out a few of the first print, say advanced editions, with the bibliography. Foresight suggested that a second print run was warranted and those were printed up. When feedback on the advanced editions came back, it was suggested that the bibliography could create legal issues (though as a lawyer - but not an expert in this field, it seem that showing pictures of the books without citation would cause more headaches, but it was 50+ years ago). So, before the majority of the first print and the entire second print run was sent out, the bibliography was excised.

[SOTIcollector]

I'll take the SOTI with the bibliography

[SOTIcollector]

Seduction of the Innocent, 1st print, 2nd state (no bibliography... but I'll include a photocopy of the bibliography) with dust jacket. All 16 illustration pages present. Dust jacket shows wear, as evident in the photos. Spine broken at title page as evident in photos. Otherwise extremely clean and solid copy of the ultimate anti-comics book. $19

 

[SOTIcollector]

Thanks to everybody for your purchases. I'll be sending PM's with payment details. Here's a recap of the latest sales. The first page of the thread shows you some item still available from my original postings.

 

Reader's Digest August 1948 $20

Love And Death by Gershon Legman $85

The Significance of the Physical Constitution in Mental Disease by Dr. Fredric Wertham $35 SOLD Esquirecomics

The Brain As An Organ by Dr. Fredric Wertham $75 SOLD EsquireComics

Seduction of the Innocent by Dr. Fredric Wertham Second print. $99 SOLD GoldDust40

Saturday Review of Literature 1948 bound 2-volume set $70 SOLD EsquireComics

Seduction of the Innocent by Dr. Fredric Wertham, First print, second state. $195 SOLD Capt Comics

Seduction of the Innocent by Dr. Fredric Wertham, First print, first state. $395 SOLD DCMan

 

Basically, this weekend is chock full of family activities so I won't be spending much time here on the boards. I anticipate being able to ship items on Tuesday or Wednesday as long as I've received payment by then.

 

If you celebrate Christmas, then Merry Christmas to you. If you celebrate Chanukah, then Happy Chanukah. If you celbrate something else, then let me know and I'll gladly wish you the best for whatever it is. If you celebrate nothing, then I wish you a nice day.

 

Regards,

 

Stephen

[SOTIcollector]

I've always found the second print curious, and here's why.

We know that when the first print went to press, it had a bibliography on one leaf (pp. 399-400). After it was printed, the publisher ordered that the bibliography be removed. Wertham believed that this action was taken because the book's publisher (Rinehart) feared lawsuits by the comic book publishers listed in the bibliography.

So the bibliography leaf was removed from almost all first printings of SOTI. On a typical first print, you can open the book to where pp. 399-400 should be, and you can see a stub where the offending leaf was removed. Given this history, the stub in the first print makes sense to me.

However, at some point a second print of SOTI was created. When you check where pages 399-400 should be on the second print, you also find a stub indicating that the offending leaf has been removed. Why was the second print even printed with that page? Why didn't they simply replace the bibliography leaf with a blank leaf before printing? If you have any knowledge, or even workable theories, about why this stub exists in second prints, I'd love to hear about it.

 

I have a theory. Granted, I work a little with printers, but any actual printer would trump anything I would have to say. In any case, here goes...

 

With the printers I work with, the difficult, time-consuming and costly (most importantly) part of the process is creating the printing plates. I would imagine this was even more true back in the 50's pre-digital when you're dealing with either typesetting or acid-etching. Combine that with cheap labor costs it might have been cheaper to remove that page after printing instead of crating a new plate. Especially when you consider that a single printing plate can be four, eight or sixteen printed pages when the book is assembled and cut. Just mu guess, anyway

 

Interesting,

 

I have a theory as well. Perhaps the published had shipped out a few of the first print, say advanced editions, with the bibliography. Foresight suggested that a second print run was warranted and those were printed up. When feedback on the advanced editions came back, it was suggested that the bibliography could create legal issues (though as a lawyer - but not an expert in this field, it seem that showing pictures of the books without citation would cause more headaches, but it was 50+ years ago). So, before the majority of the first print and the entire second print run was sent out, the bibliography was excised.

 

Love those theories. I hadn't thought of the fact that a change to a single page, even when just dropping all of its content, could require changing a large plate composed of multiple pages. I like the theory. At least I now know of two ways the second-print stub could make sense. Thanks!

[SOTIcollector]

Thread closed.

 

Thanks to all who bought from me. The unsold items will go back on the shelf till some day in the far-off future. Packages for recent sales will ship out tomorrow (Wed 12/28).