Publisher's Synopsis
This work looks at the recorded thoughts of famous artists, writers, thinkers, statesmen, scientists, even future saints about sex in everything from brief diary entries to memoirs, essays, love letters, poems and jokes. The author has unearthed scores of previously unknown musings - including Mark Twain's essay on masturbation, Benjamin Franklin's graphic letter in praise of older women and James Joyce's love letters to his wife that recount in vivid detail their recent amorous romps - and intersperses them with striking historical documents - such as a 16th-century treatise on the difficulties of having sex with the Devil (with first-hand accounts) and several manuals on the art of love.