Society

"The Playboy's Handbook: A Frolic Volume For The Gentleman" 1943 BROOKS, William Allen

BROOKS, William Allen

[256] pp.

Knickerbocker Publishing Company

1943

8 1/4" x 5 3/4"

VG/ VG

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With chapter headings like, “Just a Freudy Cat,” “Some of My Best Friends Are Lechers,” and “The Greeks Had a Yen for It,” this literate but charming book delves into the life of the mid-20th Century bachelor. In between occasional cartoons and frequent illustration, there are jokes, stories, dating advice, and historical overviews (for example, France once heavily taxed unmarried men). Labeling itself an esoteric miscellany, it includes contributions from Gilbert Seldes, James Thurber, and Benjamin Franklin (who enjoyed his life as a single man immensely while representing the U.S. in France).

“Any hostess of experience [knows] that a bachelor is something of a problem [as] they usually seem to have mysterious engagements of one sort or another, not always entirely mythical, which remove them from the party at least an hour or two before the hostess has reckoned.”

--George Jean Nathan


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