The Flash Press: Sporting Male Weeklies in 1840s New York (Historical Studies of Urban America)

Obscene, libidinous, loathsome, lascivious. Those were just some of the ways critics described the nineteenth-century weeklies that covered and publicized New York City’s extensive sexual underworld. Publications like the Flash and the Whip—distinguished by a captivating brew of lowbrow humor and titillating gossip about prostitutes, theater denizens, and sporting events—were not the sort generally bound in leather for future reference, and despite their popularity with an enthusiastic readership, they quickly receded into almost complete obscurity. Recently, though, two sizable collections of these papers have resurfaced, and in The Flash Press three renowned scholars provide a landmark study of their significance as well as a wide selection of their ribald articles and illustrations. Including short tales of urban life, editorials on prostitution, and moralizing rants against homosexuality, these selections epitomize a distinct form of urban journalism. Here, in addition to providing a thorough overview of this colorful reportage, its editors, and its audience, the authors examine nineteenth-century ideas of sexuality and freedom that mixed Tom Paine’s republicanism with elements of the Marquis de Sade’s sexual ideology. They also trace the evolution of censorship and obscenity law, showing how a string of legal battles ultimately led to the demise of the flash papers: editors were hauled into court, sentenced to jail for criminal obscenity and libel, and eventually pushed out of business. But not before they forever changed the debate over public sexuality and freedom of expression in America’s most important city.

History

Cohen, Patricia Cline

GILFOYLE, TIMOTHY J.

Horowitz, Helen Lefkowitz

American Antiquarian Society

Americas

University of Chicago Press

Obscene, libidinous, loathsome, lascivious. Those were just some of the ways critics described the nineteenth-century weeklies that covered and publicized New York City’s extensive sexual underworld. Publications like the Flash and the Whip—distinguished by a captivating brew of lowbrow humor and titillating gossip about prostitutes, theater denizens, and sporting events—were not the sort generally bound in leather for future reference, and despite their popularity with an enthusiastic readership, they quickly receded into almost complete obscurity. Recently, though, two sizable collections of these papers have resurfaced, and in The Flash Press three renowned scholars provide a landmark study of their significance as well as a wide selection of their ribald articles and illustrations. Including short tales of urban life, editorials on prostitution, and moralizing rants against homosexuality, these selections epitomize a distinct form of urban journalism. Here, in addition to providing a thorough overview of this colorful reportage, its editors, and its audience, the authors examine nineteenth-century ideas of sexuality and freedom that mixed Tom Paine’s republicanism with elements of the Marquis de Sade’s sexual ideology. They also trace the evolution of censorship and obscenity law, showing how a string of legal battles ultimately led to the demise of the flash papers: editors were hauled into court, sentenced to jail for criminal obscenity and libel, and eventually pushed out of business. But not before they forever changed the debate over public sexuality and freedom of expression in America’s most important city.

Arts & Photography

Many Mysteries Unraveled or Conjuring Literature in America 1786-1876

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Mulholland Library of Conjuring and the Allied Arts

JAY, Ricky

Mystery

The study of artist education includes examining how historical and environmental factors affect the way artists receive their training. This collection of essays published by the American Antiquarian Society (AAS) brings the role of history back into exploring how young people began and developed as artists in the nineteenth century. The contributors' work reveals the relationshiip between art education in public schools and training opportunities in the trade. Distributed for the American Antiquarian Society.

The Cultivation of Artists in Nineteenth-Century America

Study & Teaching

Amer Antiquarian Society

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Remarks and Resolutions Commemorative of Josiah Quincy

Literature & Fiction

Literary

Kessinger Pub

A List Of Early American Imprints, 1640-1700 (1896)

Kessinger Publishing

Antiquarian Papers: Memorial Of John Endecott, Reception Of John Winthrop (1879)

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society Volume 96

Business & Money

Economics

RareBooksClub.com

Arts & Literature

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