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149 STOPES, Marie Carmichael. Married Love. London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, [1925] Octavo. Original pale grey cloth, bevelled boards, spine and front board let- tered in gilt with elaborate knotwork decoration in gilt, top edge gilt, oth- ers uncut. Monochrome portrait frontispiece with tissue guard. 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. signed limited edition, touching presentation copy, inscribed by the 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. This is number 9 of 540 copies signed by the author on the frontispiece. Sister Phyllis Jones, or “Niss”, was nurse to the young Har- ry 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 enve- lopes of the Stopes home videos (now housed in the Wellcome Li- brary) demonstrate, Jones was an integral part of family life in Har- ry’s early years: the 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”; and “19. 9. 1929 On rocks at Portland; includes Niss”. Stopes was a famously protective mother—when advertising to adopt a companion for Harry, the child had to be “a little boy be- tween the ages of 20 months and 2 1/4 years . . . 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. Married Love , Stopes’s controversial guide to sex, was first pub- lished 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 13 years. The signed limited edition is the 15th edition overall. See Wellcome Library online catalogue, “Family films of Marie Stopes”, 1925, shelfmark 5301D. £1,250 [124621]
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All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
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