Case for Birth Control, The.
Inscribed to Alexander Berkman,
On His Birthday
Sanger, Margaret. The Case for Birth Control. A Supplementary Brief and Statement of Facts…To Aid the Court in its Consideration of the Statute designed to prevent the dissemination of information for Preventing Conception…[New York: Margaret Sanger], May 1917.
Folio; preliminaries and occasional pages lightly foxed, not affecting text; with various graphs and charts throughout; green cloth, stamped in gilt; covers lightly used, small scratch to lower front cover; a truly handsome copy. In a specially made quarter-morocco slipcase.
First edition of one of the most significant texts in the history of feminism. A remarkable presentation copy, inscribed on the front endpaper: (Birthday) Nov 22 1917 / To / Alexander Berkman / One of the few brave men who has lived his / life fearlessly & without / compromise – whom the enemy has neither bent / nor broken. / Ever fraternally in / the Cause of Emancipation / Margaret Sanger.
There is probably no Margaret Sanger book more famous or more influential than The Case for Birth Control. It was published as an argument to the public as well as a legal brief (the title page credits “Jonah J. Goldstein, Counsel”) and, coming on the heels of Sanger’s periodical The Birth Control Review, which inaugurated in February 1917, it rocked the very foundations of modern society till then in terms of what was polite, politic, and printable.
The Case for Birth Control is organized into 9 chapters, and a glossary: “Introduction” (featuring remarks by Havelock Ellis and others); “The Origin and Practice of Birth Control in Various Countries”; “Population and Birth Rate”; “Infant Mortality”; “Maternal Mortality and Diseases Affected by Pregnancy”; “Harmful Methods Practiced to Avoid Large Families” (which includes Sanger’s infamous discussion of abortion); “Prostitution, Feeble-Mindedness and Venereal Diseases”; “Other Transmittable Diseases and Pauperism”; and “Conclusion: Eminent Opinions.”
Sanger’s aim in writing The Case for Birth Control was clear and unabashed: “The purpose of the Appellent in presenting the various statistics and medical and social facts incorporated in the supplementary brief, entitled The Case for Birth Control, is to give the Court a clear conception of the meaning of birth control” (foreword). Over the course of the 251 subsequent pages Sanger lays out the physical, practical, moral, ethical, and political reasons that birth control should be a legal option for women, bolstering her case with anecdotal evidence from her 14 year career as a health-care provider.
Some of her most eloquent, and radical, words appear at the opening of Chapter I, “The Case for Birth Control,” parts of which she had used as a stock speech as she rallied her cause throughout New York City and beyond. She begins boldly and forcefully with language that would shock even today:
For centuries woman has gone forth with man to till the fields, to feed and clothe the
nations. She has sacrificed her life to populate the earth. She has overdone her labors.
She now steps forth and demands that women shall cease producing in ignorance. To do
this she must have knowledge to control birth. This is the first immediate step she must
take toward the goal of her freedom. (Chapter I, [1])
With these words Sanger set down a challenge that is still being played out in the courts and drawing rooms of America.
It would be difficult if not impossible to find a more meaningful association copy of The Case for Birth Control than this presentation from to Berkman.
The relationship between Sanger and Berkman was long and complex. In 1910 Sanger and her husband Bill moved to New York City, where their household soon became a refuge for socialists, anarchists, labor union leaders, and other activists. Berkman and Emma Goldman arrived on the Sangers’ doorstep later that year and the two couples formed a close if confusing allia
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