Read The Birth of the Pill: How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution Online
Authors: Jonathan Eig
CHAPTER TEN
| 102 | “He wasn’t afraid to go out on a limb” : Seymour Lieberman, telephone interview conducted by the author, October 2011. |
| 104 | “Don’t be so scrupulous, John” : Loretta McLaughlin, The Pill, John Rock, and the Church: The Biography of a Revolution (Boston: Little, Brown, 1982), p. 14. |
| 104 | Rock’s diary from 1907 : Margaret Marsh and Wanda Ronner, The Fertility Doctor : John Rock and the Reproductive Revolution (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), p. 13. |
| 105 | hustle between two exam rooms : Rachel Achenbach, interview conducted by the author, October 2011. |
| 105 | and he was “Dr. Rock” : Transcript of Loretta McLaughlin interview conducted by Rachel Achenbach, undated, CLM. |
| 105 | “a very poor scientist” : Ibid. |
| 106 | “without dire consequences” : James Reed, From Private Vice to Public Virtue: The Birth Control Movement and American Society Since 1830 (New York: Basic Books, 1978), p. 188. |
| 106 | served as an ambulance driver : McLaughlin, The Pill, John Rock, and the Church , p. 17. |
| 107 | “natural fullness of ecstasy” : John Rock, “Sex, Science and Survival,” Eugenics Review 56, no. 2 (1964), p. 73. |
| 107 | “shameful and intrinsically vicious” : Janet E. Smith, Humanae Vitae: A Generation Later (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 1991), p. 7. |
| 109 | his controversial cause : Leslie Woodcock Tentler, Catholics and Contraception: An American History (New York: Cornell University Press, 2004), p. 115. |
| 109 | “ensure group survival” : Ibid., pp. 77–78. |
| 110 | “remain a Catholic” : Margaret Sanger to Marion Ingersoll, February 18, 1954, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC. |
| 110 | “reformed Catholic” : Katharine Dexter McCormick to Margaret Sanger, July 21, 1954, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC. |
| 111 | “I don’t think that Roman Catholicism” : “Planed Fertility,” Time , February 9, 1948. |
| 111 | “superstition, science, and symbolism” : John Rock and David Loth, “Birth Control Is Not Enough,” Coronet , June 1950, 67–72. |
| 114 | reverse the procedure : Marsh and Ronner, The Fertility Doctor , p. 131. |
| 115 | “may be considered as deviants” : Elaine Tyler May, Barren in the Promised Land: Childless Americans and the Pursuit of Happiness (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997), p. 172. |
| 115 | “basic urge and need” : Ibid., p. 153. |
| 115 | “frustrated, but valiantly adventuresome” : Marsh and Ronner, The Fertility Doctor , p. 154. |
| 116 | chatted between sessions : Albert Q. Maisel, The Hormone Quest (New York: Random House, 1965), p. 119. |
| 116 | he wouldn’t drop dead : Marsh and Ronner, The Fertility Doctor , p. 155. |
| 116 | careful not to make promises : Transcript of Luigi Mastroianni interview conducted by Leon Speroff, undated. |
| 116 | “they wanted to try it” : McLaughlin, The Pill, John Rock, and The Church , p. 109. |
| 117 | fifty milligrams of progesterone : Laura V. Marks, Sexual Chemistry (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2001), p. 93. |
| 117 | “conception could not occur” : Ibid., p. 110. |
| 119 | nineteen shares valued at $921.50 : P. E. Tillman to Gregory Pincus, June 16, 1953, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC. |
| 119 | where it would solidify into a pellet : Gregory Pincus to Al Raymond, November 16, 1953, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC. |
| 119 | gave him a green light : Al Raymond to Gregory Pincus, November 12, 1953, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC. |
| 119 | not to publicize their involvement : Gregory Pincus to Victor Drill, December 15, 1954, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC. |
| 119 | “going against Nature” : McLaughlin, The Pill, John Rock, and the Church , p. 111. |
CHAPTER ELEVEN
| 122 | “workings of the human body” : Albert Q. Maisel, The Hormone Quest (New York: Random House, 1965), p. ix. |
| 124 | “rising standard for the entire world” : Andrea Tone, Devices and Desires: A History of Contraceptives in America (New York: Hill and Wang, 2001), p. 208. |
| 124 | “tsunami of male lust” : Mary Louise Roberts, What Soldiers Do: Sex and the American GI in World War II France (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2013), p. 9. |
| 125 | median age for marriage . . . was 20.1 : “American Families: 75 Years of Change,” Monthly Labor Review , Bureau of Labor Statistics, March 1990, p. 7. |
| 127 | “All animals play around” : Beth Bailey, Sex in the Heartland (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999), p. 46. |
CHAPTER TWELVE
| 128 | high hopes for a dramatic outcome : Gregory Pincus, “Report of Progress,” January 23, 1953, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC. |
| 129 | “patentable discoveries” : Paul Henshaw to Gregory Pincus, January 26, 1953, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC . |
| 129 | “forward thinking required by research” : Esther Katz, ed., The Selected Papers of Margaret Sanger , Vol. 3 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2010), p. 349. |
| 129 | “would agree to such a provision” : Paul Henshaw to Gregory Pincus, January 26, 1953, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC. |
| 129 | “a knotty question” : Gregory Pincus to Paul Henshaw, January, 28, 1953, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC. |
| 129 | can the human testing begin? : Paul Henshaw to Gregory Pincus, February 17, 1953, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC. |
| 130 | “a little faster. . . .” : Gregory Pincus to Paul Henshaw, February 19, 1953, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC. |
| 130 | “thirty to forty women” : Gregory Pincus to Planned Parenthood, “Application for a Grant,” April 29, 1953, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC. |
| 131 | “fundamental facts” . . . “available resources” : Gregory Pincus to Paul Henshaw, March 30, 1953, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC. |
| 131 | “passed over the research laboratory” : Gregory Pincus, The Control of Fertility (New York: Academic Press, 1965), p. 8. |
| 133 | meet somewhere in the middle : Transcript of Luigi Mastroianni interview conducted by Leon Speroff, undated. |
| 133 | both of which were in Worcester : “Dr. H. L. Kirkendall Dies in Worcester,” Lowell Sun , May 9, 1955. |
| 134 | 250 and 300 milligrams a day : Gregory Pincus to Henry Kirkendall, April 30, 1953, LOC. |
| 134 | Worcester Foundation in Shrewsbury : Dr. Henry Kirkendall, Jr., telephone interview conducted by the author, April 2013. |
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
| 135 | “on our side or not” : Russell Marker interview conducted by Jeffrey L. Sturchio, 1987 (Philadelphia Chemical Heritage Foundation, Oral History Transcript #0068). |
| 137 | “a place I could work on them” : Ibid. |
| 138 | others were doing revolutionary work : Carl Djerassi, This Man’s Pill: Reflections on the 50th Birthday of the Pill (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), p. 38. |
| 138 | “funky little vacation house” : Djerassi, This Man’s Pill , p. 43. |
| 139 | “Not in our wildest dreams” : Andrea Tone, Devices and Desires: A History of Contraceptives in America (New York: Hill and Wang, 2001), p. 218. |
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
| 140 | “the crowds are so great” : Katharine Dexter McCormick to Margaret Sanger, May 15, 1953, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC. |
| 140 | hot and humid Monday : Katharine Dexter McCormick to Margaret Sanger, Western Union telegram, June 1, 1953; “First Heat Wave Will End Today,” Lowell Sun , June 8, 1953. |
| 141 | “This is the place” : Isabelle Chang, telephone interview conducted by the author, July 2013. |
| 141 | half of the $17,500 : Paul Henshaw to Gregory Pincus, May 28, 1953, LOC. |
| 141 | a check for $10,000 : Gregory Pincus to Paul Henshaw, June 10, 1953, LOC. |
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
| 143 | because no work gets done : Katharine Dexter McCormick to Margaret Sanger, December 27, 1954, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC. |
| 143 | “the scope of the tests in action” : Katharine Dexter McCormick to Margaret Sanger, September 28, 1953, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC. |
| 143 | to fund Pincus’s research beyond January 1954 : Margaret Sanger to Katharine Dexter McCormick, October 5, 1953, Armond Fields Collection, USC. |
| 143 | power struggle with William Vogt : Margaret Sanger to Marion Crary Ingersoll, February 18, 1954, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC. |
| 143 | “a simple, cheap, contraceptive” : Margaret Sanger to Katharine Dexter McCormick, February 23, 1954, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC. |
| 144 | “development of a simple contraceptive” : Ibid. |
| 144 | “bring it to a final conclusion” : Margaret Sanger to Katharine Dexter McCormick, October 12, 1953, Armond Fields Collection, USC. |
| 144 | “a bit of luck these days” : Gregory Pincus to Al Raymond, May 8, 1953, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC. |
| 145 | Syntex had performed better : Transcript of Gabriel Bialy interview conducted by Leon Speroff, August 2007. |
| 145 | 8 percent of the Foundation’s total income : “Tenth Anniversary Report, 1944–1954,” Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology, LOC. |
| 145 | one-third of Pincus’s $15,000 annual salary : Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology Finance Committee Report, November 3, 1953, Worcester Foundation Papers, UM. |
| 145 | “weary & depressed” : Margaret Sanger to Juliet Barrett Rublee, January 26, 1953, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC. |
| 146 | she wrote to the same friend : Ibid. |
| 146 | “not to do any public speaking ever again” : Margaret Sanger to Dorothy Hamilton Brush, January 14, 1952, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC. |
| 146 | urged her to retire : Esther Katz, ed., The Selected Papers of Margaret Sanger , Vol. 3 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2010), p. 345. |
| 146 | “Preposterous!” : Margaret Sanger to Rufus Day, Jr., December 6, 1956, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC. |
| 146 | to which she had become accustomed : Katz, The Selected Papers of Margaret Sanger , Vol. 3, p. 319. |
| 146 | Cleveland-born socialite : Dorothy Hamilton Brush to Margaret Sanger, January 6, 1953, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC. |
| 147 | “when the slavery of half of humanity” : Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex (New York: Random House, 2011), p. 766. |
| 147 | “a life time to study & write” : Margaret Sanger to Juliet Barrett Rublee, February 6, 1953, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC. |
| 147 | “put all our energies into research” : Fourth International Conference on Planned Parenthood, Report of the Proceedings , August 17–22, 1953, Stockholm, Sweden (London: International Planned Parenthood Federation, 1953), p. 9. |
| 148 | when individuals volunteered for sterilization : Irene Headley Armes, “A Proposed Program of Research on the Status and Social Demand for Permanent Conception Control in the U.S.A,” Fourth International Conference on Planned Parenthood , August 17–22, 1953, Stockholm, Sweden. |
| 148 | “both the individual and the community ”: Ibid. |
| 149 | “More children from the fit” : “Intelligent or Unintelligent Birth Contol,” Birth Control Review , May 1919, p. 12. |
| 149 | just as immigrants applied for visas : Speech by Margaret Sanger in Hartford, Connecticut, February 11, 1923, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC. |
| 149 | “were the government not feeding them” : Margaret Sanger to Katharine Dexter McCormick, October 27, 1950, Armond Fields Collection, USC. |
| 149 | “a privilege, not a right” : Katz, The Selected Papers of Margaret Sanger , Vol. 3, p. 271. |
| 150 | “conservative program of social control” : David M. Kennedy, Birth Control in America (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1970), p. 121. |
| 151 | nothing physical between them: Lawrence Lader, “Margaret Sanger: Militant Pragmatist Visionary,” On The Issues , Spring 1990, http://www.ontheissuesmagazine.com/1990spring/Spr90_Lader.php (accessed February 18, 2014). |
| 151 | “I am not happy in past memories” : Katz, The Selected Papers of Margaret Sanger , Vol. 3, p. 333. |
| 151 | “inexhaustible flame of your own driving force?” : Lawrence Lader to Margaret Sanger, July 25, 1952, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC; Katz, The Selected Papers of Margaret Sanger , Vol. 3, p. 333. |
| 152 | “could make you quite ill” : Ibid., p. 344. |
| 152 | “its prophet, its driving force” : Lawrence Lader, The Margaret Sanger Story (New York: Doubleday, 1955), p. 340. |