Norman Haire and the Study of Sex by Diana Wyndham (review)

Norman Haire, mid-twentieth-century medical practitioner, sexologist, and birth control advocate, offers a biographer (and reader) an opportunity to read some of the major sex reform movements of the early to mid-twentieth century from an angle just off center: not from the margins nor quite in the middle. He was a prominent player in some of the major movements of the period—birth control, eugenics, artificial insemination, rejuvenation, and sex reform—and an associate and sometime close confidant of major figures such as Havelock Ellis, Margaret Sanger, Marie Stopes, Dora Russell, and Magnus Hirschfeld, but somehow, while ever present, he never quite commanded center stage, a character actor rather than the star. Diana Wyndham’s exhaustively researched account of Haire and his context claims that his contribution to these important currents of twentieth-century reform has been neglected.

“Other pioneers in this field have been recognised,” Wyndham asks, so “why hasn’t he been recognised” (18)? This is an interesting question, but, having raised it, Wyndham avoids coming to grips with it, preferring instead to let a comprehensive account of Haire’s life speak for itself. This is a cradle-to-grave biography that reveals much that is new about this energetic and colorful sex reformer. Born in 1892 in Sydney, Australia, to Polish Jewish parents, Haire was a sickly but precociously bright child, educated at one of Sydney’s elite selective schools. He graduated in medicine from the University of Sydney in 1915, and after a minor scandal involving accusations of negligence in the treatment of a Spanish flu case at Newcastle Hospital, Haire left for London in 1919. In a short time he had established himself in Harley Street, initially in an obstetrics and gynecology practice, but really offering birth control advice at inflated fees for the well-off so he could act pro bono for the less well-off. His range of medical services, however, gradually expanded, and some of this work proved lucrative. He was an early convert to Steinarch’s “rejuvenation” techniques, involving injections of animal hormones, and vasectomies as methods that might restore vitality. His most famous patient was W. B. Yeats, whose productive late poetic career many, including Yeats, saw as a consequence of Haire’s treatment.

Haire worked quickly to establish social and intellectual contacts in the London scene. He was a great admirer of Havelock Ellis, and while the increasingly irascible Ellis offered advice and support for Haire, the ingratiating manner of the acolyte wore thin over time, and much to Haire’s distress relations became strained and never fully recovered their early cordiality. Undeterred (little seems to have deterred Haire), he also reached out to other prominent figures, notably Margaret Sanger, Marie Stopes, and others in the birth control and sex reform movements. He had an undoubted flare for proselytizing, ever ready to speak at meetings and write pamphlets and newspaper articles spreading the reform message. Energetic and anxious to contribute to the cause of reform, he threw himself into some of the major organizations of the period, notably the British Society for Sex Psychology, where he proved to be an able committee member and event organizer. To the evident frustration of Wyndham, who charts the ins and outs of his involvement in these movements, Haire comes across more as the able adjutant than the general. It is easy to underestimate the contribution of facilitators like Haire, and Wyndham does an excellent job indicating how his role enabled the contributions of more prominent figures. Through Haire’s eyes we glimpse some of the tensions and conflicts among these leading reformers from the inside and get to understand better the diverse currents and conflicts that shaped many of these vital reform movements and organizations.

By the late 1920s Haire was becoming more interested in the work of Magnus Hirschfeld, supporting the World League for Sex Reform and organizing its 1929 International Congress in London. His capacity for self-effacement and...