Manhood : The facts of life presented to men by Clement Wood
Manhood by Clement Wood is a concise sex-education and social guidance booklet for men, written in the early 20th century. It addresses the formation of male character and sexuality, outlining how love, mating, and health intersect with evolving social ideals. Its likely topic is the facts of sex, love, marriage, and personal conduct, presented as practical counsel for adolescents and adults. The book begins with adolescence, urging frank sex education at home
and in schools, physical and mental fitness, and restraint during growth. It traces the evolution of love from natural to romantic to conjugal forms, adds a psychoanalytic arc from self-love through same-sex attachments to heterosexual maturity, and argues for rising equality between women and men, thoughtful mate choice, responsible plans for children, and a single moral standard. It advises sustaining courtship within marriage, explores eugenics and birth control (favoring medical fitness while warning against coercion), and even speculates about future reproductive technologies. It calls for instruction in the art of love to ensure mutual satisfaction, warns against overindulgence and prostitution, and details the dangers of gonorrhea and syphilis with a plea for prompt medical care. The closing sections envision a freer, more humane sexual morality—grounded in consent, selection, and the possibility of dignified divorce—and define purity as generous, informed, healthful love supported by lifelong self-development. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
Read or download for free
For an overview of the different reading options, see our Reading Guide
| Reading Options | Url | Size | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Read now! | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77903.html.images | 123 kB | |||
| EPUB3 (E-readers incl. Send-to-Kindle) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77903.epub3.images | 309 kB | |||
| EPUB (older E-readers) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77903.epub.images | 308 kB | |||
| EPUB (no images, older E-readers) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77903.epub.noimages | 161 kB | |||
| Kindle | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77903.kf8.images | 454 kB | |||
| older Kindles | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77903.kindle.images | 437 kB | |||
| Plain Text UTF-8 | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77903.txt.utf-8 | 103 kB | |||
| Download HTML (zip) | https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/77903/pg77903-h.zip | 613 kB | |||
| There may be more files related to this item. | |||||
Similar Books
About this eBook
| Author | Wood, Clement, 1888-1950 |
|---|---|
| Editor | Haldeman-Julius, E. (Emanuel), 1888-1951 |
| Title | Manhood : The facts of life presented to men |
| Original Publication | Girard: Haldeman-Julius Company, 1924. |
| Series Title | Little blue book ; no. 91 |
| Credits | Tim Miller, chenzw, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | HQ: Social sciences: The family, Marriage, Sex and Gender |
| Subject | Sex instruction for men |
| Category | Text |
| EBook-No. | 77903 |
| Release Date | Feb 10, 2026 |
| Copyright Status | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 247 downloads in the last 30 days. |
| Project Gutenberg eBooks are always free! | |