Thy Neighbour's Wife Book

Gay Talese spent nine years in the 1970s studying the Sexual Revolution in the USA and threw himself into his work with enthusiasm. He actively lived the life he studied and the results of his countless interviews and participation in the Sexual Revolution are as relevant today as they were then. Group sex, swinging, bisexuality and polyamory are all covered in erotic detail. While not an exhaustive history, but rather a look at selective people and their contemporary impact, including John and Barbara Williamson's Sandstone Retreat, and John Humphrey Noyes and the Oneida Community - a precursor to the open sexuality of the 70s - the author's skills give it an academic merit. The Oneida Community was built on Noyes' concepts of Perfectionism which included communal sharing that extended to sexual relationships. Less erotically, but essential to understanding the context, Talese also reports on the Supreme Court, its decisions, the Presidential Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, and the Nixon White House's response to the loosening sexual climate. A 20 page alphabetic Index completes the work with entries from Abortion to Emile Zola. The history of sexually explicit publishing and is also among the most comprehensive ever published. "A Wonderful study of this period and the people involved." NY Times Book Review. In the UK, this book was published by Collins in hardback in 1980 with ISBN 0-00-216307-1, simultaneously as Doubleday published it in the USA.Read More