“Aberrations, Perversions, Transvestitism, Fetishism, Flagellation; Secret Sex Clubs in Paris, Berlin, etc.”; Page from “A Private Anthropological Cabinet of 500 Authentic Racial-Esoteric Photographs and Illustrations…” Privately issued by Falstaff Press, Inc. From the Morbid Anatomy Library collections.
An illustrated lecture by Colin Dickey, author of Cranioklepty and Afterlives of the Saints with drinks and music by Friese Undine
Date: Friday, February 14
Time: 8:00
Admission: $12
Presented by Morbid Anatomy
Tonight, join writer Colin Dickey for a peek into the world of early 20th century mail-order erotica. In order to evade post office censors, smut peddlers like Panurge Press and Falstaff Press were obligated to dress up their offerings with a veneer of scientific dross, resulting in works that were too smutty to be of any real scientific or sociological value, and yet too riddled with academic nonsense to be properly erotic. A curiously forgotten and nearly nonsensical sub-genre, these books exist in between the finely-drawn lines of obscenity and free speech, pornography and literature, and titillation and scientific inquiry. Colin will share the history of these odd publishers and choice examples from his library, including works like White Meat, Praeputii Incisio, Black Opium, The Sword and Womankind, and An Anthropological Cabinet of Curiosities.
Come for the lecture, and stay for delicious artisinal cocktails and thematic tunes courtesy of Friese Undine.
Colin Dickey is the author of Cranioklepty: Grave Robbing and the Search for Genius and Afterlives of the Saints and the co-editor (with Joanna Ebenstein, Morbid Anatomy Library) of The Morbid Anatomy Anthology, Volume 1. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Cabinet, TriQuarterly, and The Santa Monica Review. A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, he now lives in Brooklyn, New York where he acts as managing director of The Morbid Anatomy Museum.