Law of Population…Two editions
First American edition
Besant, Annie. The Law of Population. Its Consequences and Its Bearing Upon Human Conduct and Morals. Authorized American from the 25th thousand, English Edition. New York: Asa K. Butts, 1878.
8vo; wrappers missing; loose binding; minor soiling to title page; three pages adds printed at end.
First American edition, first printing: “Authorized American from the 25th thousand, English Edition.” A seminal tract in the fight for birth control and in raising the public’s awareness of methods of contraception. The Law of Population is often cited as a major cause for the sharp decline in the birthrate of England after 1876.
TOGETHER WITH:
Besant, Annie. The Law of Population. Its Consequences and Its Bearing Upon Human Conduct and Morals. Third Ten Thousand. Author's American Edition from the 35th thousand, English edition. Bound Brook, NJ: Asa K. Butts, 1886.
When the pamphlet first appeared in 1877 it was in the wake of an enormous amount of publicity following the trial of its author, Besant, and its publisher, Charles Bradlaugh, for the violation of England’s obscenity laws. The controversy began when Besant and Bradlaugh began publishing and distributing The Fruits of Philosophy, a pamphlet written by radical doctor Charles Knowlton which included some rudimentary advice on contraception. Although the pamphlet had been on sale for nearly forty years without interference from the courts, when the stock of a London pornographer was seized and copies of The Fruits of Philosophy— augmented with objectionable illustrations— were found within it, the pamphlet came under sudden intense scrutiny. Publisher Charles Watts, under threat of serious punishment, discontinued publication. Dismayed, Bradlaugh and Besant reissued the pamphlet under the auspices of the Freethought Publishing Company, were promptly arrested, and, after a two day trial, convicted. Though they were sentenced to two years in prison, the convictions were overturned on a technicality, and they never faced retrial.
During the course of the trial and its appeal, the issue was hotly debated in the press, raising the profile of the pamphlet and putting contraception and family planning at the center of a national debate. Almost immediately after the trial was over, Bradlaugh removed Knowlton’s pamphlet from the catalog of the Freethought Publishing Company and replaced it with Besant’s Law of Popluation which updated and expanded upon the information in The Fruits of Philosophy. Sales went from about 1,000 of the Knowlton pamphlet in the year preceding the trial, to 185,000 in the three years following it between several English and American printings of The Law of Population.
Sources
Amphlett Micklewright, F.H. “The Rise and Decline of English Neo-Malthusianism.” Population Studies, Vol. 15, No. 1 (Jul., 1961), pp. 32-51.
Peel, John. “The Manufacture and Retailing of Contraceptives in England.” Population Studies, Vol. 17, No. 2 (Nov., 1963), pp. 113-125.
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