What Adolescents Ought to Know: Sexual Health Texts in Early Twentieth-Century America

Conclusion

[ 178 ] Conclusion O I have to thank you for forwarding to us the six issues of ‘Social Diseases,’ which will make a complete set with the number that we have. The Library’s funds for its subscriptions to periodicals are out of proportion to the demands made upon them, for which reasons gifts from publishers of their publications are most welcome. Should you see your way clear . . . to placing the Library’s name on your mailing list, we would be glad to make it available to all proper inquirers. —john shaw billings, director of the new york public library, to the american social hygiene association Their difficult inception a recent but fading memory, the initial sexual and reproductive health titles of the twentieth century were soon awash in competition. Where Alfred Fournier had once envisioned himself alone, counseling a father to share Pour nos fils with his adolescent sons, there followed any number of publishers who wished to join this conversation and thrust their works into a bewildered parent’s hands. A mere five years after the imaginary and then seemingly idealistic colloquy , the outpourings of writers determined to publish their thoughts about sex for younger readers had reached unanticipated proportions. Much as the sudden surfeit of sexual health texts then prompted reconsideration of what adolescents ought to know, the networks of print that produced these works now invite scholarly reassessment of the theories that have explained earlier scientific and print culture. That transatlantic connections eventually made authoring hygiene titles almost ordinary, rather than revolutionary, is evident. The veritable flood of information created new dilemmas for those involved in its production and distribution, whether authors or government officials, and especially well-intentioned parents. When should they broach the subject of reproduction? How should they instruct their children in conclusion [ 179 ] hopes of avoiding the dire problems of which experts warned? In time, these questions became a single one: which book suited their child? As his agenda succeeded, Fournier’s guidance, not just for young men but for the guardians who chose texts on sex and reproduction for the young readers in their care, seemed almost as necessary as the technical facts he provided. Renewed attention to reading guidance, as well as reading material, emerged from efforts to convey disease prevention messages to new audiences. Adults who confronted the inadequacies of their own knowledge wanted information to guide their decisions, as well as works that their children might safely read.1 Recommenders typically met the challenge of choosing such books for young people with confidence, and venturing opinions about appropriate titles soon became a convention of hygiene tracts. Sometimes, as in the works issued by Vir Publishing, the suggestions for further reading were self-referential and explicitly promotional, publicizing “valuable books” sold by the press.2 Elsewhere, the aim seemed mild and expansive, seeing the reading of “books of instruction and of wholesome adventure” as sufficient to the aim of discouraging dangerous youth-ul vice.3 Particularly as the genre matured, publishers positioned themselves as part of a respectable community, possessing suitable knowledge and values, through their endorsements. Seldom, however, did these referrals reflect the intense personal communication and the extensive dispersal of texts that had begun in 1901. Regardless of the broader effects wrought by these powerful connections , some hesitation remained. The American Library Association, in responding to librarians’ questions about reproductive health materials suitable for their collections, appeared to defer to the judgment of the American Social Health Association. Yet of nearly two-dozen titles deemed useful by the hygiene collective, librarians learned that only a few should be considered essential purchases.4 This modest counsel was one of a mere four articles on hygiene literature in libraries published during these years of scientific change and reform campaigns.5 Nor did the professional literature mention that the ASHA offered libraries a traveling collection of key titles that could be borrowed for only the cost of postage, although the New York Public Library acknowledged conclusion [ 180 ] the importance of the association’s donation of materials in light of budget shortfalls.6 State associations also emulated this strategy of trying to place volumes in libraries.7 The relative silence of the professional library literature suggests one reason that, in 1912, ASHA officers planned marketing campaigns directly to libraries.8 Although others believed in their potential to provide the public with sexual health information , librarians were reserved. They were not...