Family Limitation. Revised Edition.

(n. p.): (n. d.), circa 1918. 6-1/4 x 4-1/2 inches. 16 pp + inside covers. Dark grey stapled wrappers printed in black. One b&w illustration. Vertical creasing; pinholes to edges of wrappers that go all the way through. Good.

A scarce, early edition of Sanger's monumentally important booklet on birth control, first published in 1914 and running to an estimated 1,500,000 copies or more over the course of the next decade. "After forty years of 'Com-stockery' ... -- decades during which obscenity laws in the United States prohibited the provision of information on sex education or contraception through the mails -- the publication of Family Limitation was a remarkable act of civil disobedience and the opening volley of the birth control movement in 20th century America" (Atwater 3084).

The text was not copyrighted and numerous editions were issued, including pirated ones. In his catalogue of the Atwater Collection, Christopher Hoolihan delineates the differences between several of the earliest editions, of which this copy most closely resembles the Portland edition, or "Type E", with the exception of the slightly larger size of the booklet and the color of the wrappers. Speculatively, this may be a pirated edition of the Portland edition.

Unlike earlier editions, this one uses less radical language when urging women, especially working women, "to see that the human material for exploiters and militarists is curtailed in the interests of all useful and productive members of society." It also skirts direct mention of abortion, while still providing methods of contraception and early termination of pregnancy.

Divided into eight sections: Introduction; A Nurse's Advice to Women; Douches and Their Importance; Vaginal Douche Formulas; The Use of the Condom or "Cots"; The Pessary and the Sponge; Sponges and Cotton Plugs; and Vaginal Suppositories.

See Atwater 3089 and Table 5.

OCLC locates three holdings of the Portland edition, at UC Santa Barbara, the LOC, and the Library Co. of Philadelphia.