In preparation for writing my book ’49:49′ I did not only study abrahamic religions but also took a look at other religions.
Partly thanks to that flash exploration of more religions I also discovered to what extent there was more to be found within Christianity about sex related topics than in the interpretation of the religion I grew up with.
And only now I read about the tragic death of the freethinker Ida Craddock, who lived from 1857 to 1902.
She refused to ‘admit’ she was insane and was then sentenced to five years in prison. The day before she would actually end up in jail, she committed suicide.
Part of Ida Craddock’s suicide letter:
I am taking my life, because a judge, at the instigation of Anthony Comstock, has decreed me guilty of a crime which I did not commit–the circulation of obscene literature–and has announced his intention of consigning me to prison for a long term.
The book has been favorably reviewed by medical magazines of standing, and has been approved by physicians of reputation.
The Rev. Dr. Rainsford of this city, in two letters to me, partially approved this book so far as to say that if all young people were to read it, a great deal of misery, suffering, and disappointment could be avoided, and that to have arrested me on account of it, as Mr. Comstock has done, was ridiculous.
This little book, “The Wedding Night,” and its companion pamphlet, “Right Marital Living,” have been circulated with approval among Social Purity women, members of the W.C.T.U., clergymen and reputable physicians; various physicians have ordered these books from me for their patients, or have sent their patients to me to procure them or to receive even fuller instruction orally
Respectable married women have purchased them from me for their daughters, husbands for their wives, wives for husbands, young women for their betrothed lovers. On all sides, these little pamphlets have evoked from their readers commendation for their purity, their spiritual uplifting, their sound common sense in treating of healthful and happy relations between husbands and wives.
The man who played the leading role in this villainous collusion between church and state, this early twentieth century witch hunt was Anthony Comstock. The English term comstockery is derived from his name.
Joan Koster
The quote from her letter I found at the site of Joan Koster.
In her series historical fiction about forgotten women Koster also wrote a book about Ida Craddock, titled Censored Angel.