I recently came across It’s Never Too Late to Love, a 1956 Royal Pyramid paperback that cost 35 cents when it first rolled off the presses. This time warp of a book, was published originally in 1953 in the wake of Alfred Kinsey’s two landmark volumes on sexual behavior. It’s written by Anna K. Daniels (“one of the most famous women gynecologists in America”) and has long been out of print. It was something of a clarion call to the reconsideration of traditional societal and sexual roles that was to come a decade later, even though it seems quaint at best today. An excerpt from the chapter “The Art of Love”:
“The greatest threat to the happiness of long married people is that intercourse will become weary, stale, flat and unprofitable due to a lack of variety. The common position, in which the woman lies on her back and the man on top of her, which many people regard as the only one sanctioned by law, custom and religion, frequently becomes dull and monotonous. Moreover, there is always the danger that the woman’s body will sink too deeply into the bed, due to sagging mattress or springs, and thus lessen the pleasure for both…”