The Marriage Manual

I was a bookish kid (and an only child), and one day I was rummaging around in our garage’s storage loft and found a box of paperback books my father had stored up there along with my childhood games and toys, boxes of old clothes, and family keepsakes. I unpacked the box to see what books I might like there, and among the novels was a 1940s-50s marriage manual. I was home alone so took that paperback back into the house and began looking through it.

I wish I could remember its title—could have been THE IDEAL MARRIAGE, which was a best-seller in those years, but I think it had another title. I was fascinated reading through it, decided to get naked in my bed, and slowly stroked my penis as I read. The author tried to be very scientific and medical in the descriptions. There were drawings of the female genitals and the male genitals—the sexual plumbing— and an explanation of the contents of semen. The author assumed the readers were married and assumed that missionary position was the proper sexual position for intercourse. I don’t remember any discussion of oral techniques, though I might be misremembering. Certainly no mention of anal or of other positions. The author strongly recommended foreplay—the first time I saw or heard that term.

The still-medical descriptions got hotter and my penis harder as the author described intercourse. The author explained pre-cum and its functions and recommended waiting before the female was very wet (I don’t think the author used that term) before putting the penis in. The author recommended long, slow strokes. He discussed the problem of premature ejaculation and recommended practice, such as stopping motion when the man approached “the point of no return.”

The book got very interesting when the author tried to describe the feeling of the orgasm. I felt certain that any teen boy or man reading the book knew the feeling of the orgasm, though it is possible teen girls and young women reading the book had not experienced an orgasm. My recollection these 59 years later is that the author described the orgasm as similar to being tickled (I could be misremembering this). The author then recommended that after orgasm (the male orgasm one presumes) the couple should remain embraced to enjoy the “afterglow” (another new term for me).

All told, I found the “marriage manual” to be very exciting. That first time I masturbated to orgasm and returned the book to the box in the attic. But the book hooked me and I returned to it often for my masturbatory material. Eventually I found my father’s PLAYBOY magazine and those became my primary stroke material, but that paperback marriage manual was my first masturbatory reading and viewing. I wish I could find a copy of that book.

I should add that it was at this same time that I became a devotee of Greek male nudes in art. See my other ST story about that.