Read The Birth of the Pill: How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution Online
Authors: Jonathan Eig
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
| 153 | a total of $622,000 in income : Bruce Crawford, Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology Finance Committee Report, October, 16, 1953, Worcester Foundation Papers, UM. |
| 153 | “to do the jobs on hand” : Ibid. |
| 154 | pledging fifty thousand dollars : Ibid. |
| 154 | “young, lusty and full of promise” : Gregory Pincus to Frank Fremont-Smith, September 25, 1953, LOC. |
| 155 | metabolism of steroids : “Synopsis of Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology Research Projects,” 1953–54, Worcester Foundation Papers, UM. |
| 155 | “new studies in reproduction control” : “Minutes of the Tenth Annual Trustees Meeting of the Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology,” June 12, 1954, Worcester Foundation Papers, UM. |
| 155 | in a letter to McCormick : Margaret Sanger to Katharine Dexter McCormick, February 13, 1954, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC. |
| 155 | “merely said he hoped I was still interested” : Katharine Dexter McCormick to Margaret Sanger, February 17, 1954, Armond Fields Collection, USC. |
| 155 | “As I became somewhat impatient” : Ibid. |
| 156 | “I was mistaken” : Ibid. |
| 156 | first human trials : Katharine Dexter McCormick to Margaret Sanger, November 13, 1953, Armond Fields Collection, USC. |
| 157 | “forget to take the medicine sometimes” : Ibid. |
| 158 | “would be very difficult in this country” : Gregory Pincus to Katharine Dexter McCormick, March 5, 1954, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC. |
| 158 | “somewhat elevated” : Gregory Pincus to Al Raymond, January 26, 1954, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC. |
| 158 | desperate for better birth control : Annette B. Ramirez de Arellano, Colonialism, Catholicism, and Contraception (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1983), p. 108. |
| 159 | “ovulating intelligent” women : Katharine Dexter McCormick to Margaret Sanger, October 21, 1954, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC. |
| 160 | average mother . . . had borne 6.8 children : Reuben Hill, J. Mayone Stycos, and Kurt W. Black, The Family and Population Control (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1959), p. 13. |
| 161 | “determined not to have more children” : Transcript of Edris Rice-Wray interview conducted by Ellen Chesler, undated, SSC. |
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
| 162 | ten times as many children : David M. Oshinsky, Polio: An American Story (Oxford, UK, and New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), p. 5. |
| 163 | six hundred thousand children : Ibid., p. 199. |
| 163 | “The earth’s population will double” : “There Won’t be Room to Breathe in 2023 If Birth-Death Rate Continues,” Panama City News-Herald , April 6, 1953. |
| 164 | one of the most densely populated countries : “Population Control in Puerto Rico: The Formal and Informal Framework,” Law and Contemporary Problems 25, no. 3 (1960), pp. 558–76. |
| 164 | more densely packed than the United States : Ibid. |
| 164 | one in every ten residents : “Flow of Puerto Ricans Here Fills Jobs, Poses Problems,” New York Times , February 23, 1953. |
| 164 | one hundred miles long : “Puerto Rico Faces Two Big Problems,” New York Times , June 27, 1954. |
| 165 | only heightening the sense of crowding : Ibid. |
| 165 | less than four : P. K. Hatt, Backgrounds of Human Fertility in Puerto Rico (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1952), p. 53, Table 37. |
| 165 | “So, two is enough” : J. Mayone Stycos, Family and Fertility in Puerto Rico (New York: Columbia University Press, 1955), p. 160. |
| 165 | underway in Puerto Rico : Ibid., p. 159. |
| 166 | “How could I enjoy it . . . ?” : Ibid., pp. 163–64. |
| 166 | women . . . intentionally married men : Ibid., p. 164. |
| 167 | birth control at some point : Ibid., p. 217. |
| 167 | a return flight home on Monday : Annette B. Ramirez de Arellano, Colonialism, Catholicism, and Contraception (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1983), p. 146. |
| 167 | would cost about six hundred dollars : Ibid. |
| 168 | “imperils the whole society” : Stycos, Family and Fertility in Puerto Rico , p. 255. |
| 168 | “ ‘but you won’t do both’ ” : Transcript of Edris Rice-Wray interview conducted by Ellen Chesler, undated, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC. |
| 169 | They recommended a diaphragm : Transcript of Edris Rice-Wray oral history by James Reed, March 1987, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC. |
| 169 | came as a revelation : Transcript of Edris Rice-Wray interview conducted by Ellen Chesler, undated, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC. |
| 169 | “it wasn’t enough for me” : Ibid. |
| 169 | to help the other women : Ibid. |
| 169 | she moved with her children to San Juan : Ibid. |
| 170 | “they are doing nothing about it” : Edris Rice-Wray to William Vogt, December 10, 1953, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC. |
| 170 | “We have 160 clinics” : Ibid. |
| 171 | “looking for anybody” : Transcript of Edris Rice-Wray interview conducted by Ellen Chesler, undated, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC. |
| 171 | “Our great opportunity” : Edris Rice-Wray to Gregory Pincus, March 6, 1954, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC. |
| 172 | Only five reported no side effects : Memo titled “Pseudopregnancy Data,” June 15, 1954, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC. |
| 172 | “assemble a group of 50 women” : Gregory Pincus to Dr. Manuel Fernández Fuster, October 19, 1954, LOC. |
| 172 | “at worst inconvenient” : Gregory Pincus memo, November 1, 1954, John Rock Papers, CLM. |
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
| 175 | Mercier said : Tina Mercier, telephone interview conducted by the author, April 2013. |
| 176 | behind his back : Dr. Enoch Callaway, telephone interview conducted by the author, March 2013. |
| 177 | one inmate beheaded another : “12-State Alarm for Worcester Mental Patient Who Axed Inmate,” Lowell Sun , July 22, 1943. |
| 177 | “patients who have defeated our best efforts” : Enoch Callaway, Asylum: A Mid-Century Madhouse and Its Lessons about Our Mentally Ill Today (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2007), p. 6. |
| 178 | “defecating and urinating” : Ibid., p. 9. |
| 178 | pulling hair in frustration : Ibid., p. 8. |
| 178 | “I could not help imagining” : Ibid., p. 9. |
| 178 | “would never think of doing these days” : Dr. Enoch Callaway, telephone interview conducted by the author, March 2013. |
| 179 | “[W]e wish to inform the directors” : Oscar Resnick to Gregory Pincus, undated, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC. |
| 180 | to cure men of homosexuality : Andrea Tone, ed., Controlling Reproduction (Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 2001), p. 220. |
| 180 | “were just as psychotic” : “Field Study with Enovid as a Contraceptive Agent,” ERW, Proceedings of a Symposium on 19-Nor Progestational Steroids , 118, Searle Research Laboratories, January 23, 1957. |
CHAPTER NINETEEN
| 181 | it made him uncomfortable : Rachel Achenbach, interview conducted by the author, October 2011. |
| 181 | hormone for prolonged stretches : Loretta McLaughlin, The Pill, John Rock, and The Church: The Biography of a Revolution (Boston: Little, Brown, 1982), p. 111. |
| 182 | “very realistic about medical work” : Katharine Dexter McCormick to Margaret Sanger, July 19, 1954, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC. |
| 182 | Pincus and Rock refused : Margaret Marsh and Wanda Ronner, The Fertility Doctor: John Rock and the Reproductive Revolution (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), p. 158. |
| 182 | “an abstract research thing” : Ibid., p. 159. |
| 182 | “What has happened to you . . . ?” : Margaret Sanger to Abraham Stone, March 2, 1954, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC. |
| 184 | “ pitifully little that was of practical value” : Ibid., p. 169. |
| 184 | keynote speaker was Catholic? : Winfield Best to John Rock, March 9, 1954, John Rock Papers, CLM. |
| 184 | “importance of the world population increase” : John Rock to Winfield Best, March 11, 1954, John Rock Papers, CLM. |
| 186 | “Two big steps that women must take” : David Halberstam, The Fifties (New York: Villard Books, 1993), p. 591. |
| 186 | wash the dishes and emerge “utterly desirable” : Marlene Dietrich, “How to Be Loved,” Ladies’ Home Journal , January 1954. |
| 186 | “learn to live and work together” : “Listen, Marlene!” Ladies’ Home Journal , April 1954. |
| 187 | behind the scenes on political campaigns : Joanne Meyerowitz, ed., Not June Cleaver: Women and Gender in Postwar America, 1945–1960 (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1994), p. 250. |
| 187 | “end of the old controversy” : James R. Petersen, The Century of Sex: Playboy’s History of the Sexual Revolution, 1900–1999 (New York: Grove Press, 1999), p. 233. |
| 188 | “Sex is something I really don’t understand” : J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye (Boston: Little, Brown, 1951), pp. 63–64. |
| 188 | “wearing out britches from the inside” : Ibid., p. 240. |
| 188 | having an affair with a nurse : Gay Talese, Thy Neighbor’s Wife (New York: Doubleday, 1980), p. 50. |
| 188 | phone call from the chancellery : Ibid., p. 72. |
| 189 | Playboy was the fastest growing magazine in America : Ibid., p. 73. |
| 189 | “develop a method for inhibition” : Gregory Pincus to Margaret Sanger, March 31, 1954, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC. |
CHAPTER TWENTY
| 190 | shaken but not hurt : Katharine Dexter McCormick to Margaret Sanger, February 1, 1955, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC. |
| 190 | hitched a ride to Boston : Ibid. |
| 190 | maid stood by to fetch drinks : Laura Pincus Bernard, interview conducted by the author, October 2011. |
| 191 | refused to supply the chemical : Margaret Sanger to Katharine Dexter McCormick, April 22, 1954, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC. |
| 191 | did not yet understand how or why : Margaret Marsh and Wanda Ronner, The Fertility Doctor: John Rock and the Reproductive Revolution (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), p. 170. |
| 191 | “throws grave doubt” : Al Raymond to Gregory Pincus, January 3, 1955, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC. |
| 192 | “will send it to you unlabeled” : Ibid. |
| 192 | “didn’t want to be bothered with menstruals” : Transcript of Anne Merrill interview conducted by Leon Speroff, May 2007. |
| 193 | participate as part of their studies : Katharine Dexter McCormick to Margaret Sanger, February 1, 1955, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC. |
| 194 | Laura was startled and charmed : Laura Pincus Bernard, interview conducted by the author, October 2011; David Halberstam, The Fifties (New York: Villard Books, 1993), p. 604. |
| 194 | seeing patients and conducting experiments : Armond Fields, Katharine Dexter McCormick: Pioneer for Women’s Rights (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003), p. 268. |
| 194 | confident enough to send Pincus a check : Katharine Dexter McCormick to Bruce Crawford, January 5, 1955, Worcester Foundation Papers, UM. |
| 194 | in addition to the $20,000 : Katharine Dexter McCormick to Hudson Hoagland, August 13, 1954, Worcester Foundation Papers, UM. |
| 195 | “for lack of funds” : Katharine Dexter McCormick to Bruce Crawford, January 5, 1955, Worcester Foundation Papers, UM. |
| 195 | food supplies might falter : “60,000,000 Buyers to Enter Market,” New York Times , March 15, 1955. |
| 196 | “Babies, Babies, Babies—4,000,000 Problems” : “Washington: Babies, Babies, Babies—4,000,000 Problems,” New York Times , February 27, 1955. |
| 197 | “meeting the needs of the people” : “San Juan Talks Open on Birth Control Theme Held Key to Caribbean Problems,” New York Times , May 13, 1955. |
| 198 | “I wouldn’t have your job for anything” : “The Plight of the Young Mother,” Ladies’ Home Journal , February 1956, p. 107. |
| 198 | “if you call that a vacation” : Ibid. |
| 199 | “very quietly and privately” : “Scientists Near Goal in Finding Simple Birth Control Method,” Middleboro Daily News (Kentucky), July 14, 1955. |
| 199 | project-by-project basis : Ellen Chesler, Woman of Valor: Margaret Sanger and the Birth Control Movement in America (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007), p. 437. |
| 199 | Conference of the International Planned Parenthood Federation : Ibid. |
| 200 | “I do wish the field tests” : Katharine Dexter McCormick to Margaret Sanger, February 1, 1955, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC. |