Perfect Manhood: How Inherited, Attained and Maintained, How Wrecked and Regained by SHANNON, T.W - 1913

Marietta, OH: The S.A. Mullikin Co, 1913. Third Edition. Octavo (20cm); mustard yellow pictorial cloth, stamped in dark brown and black; 169pp. Spine slightly cocked; boards smudged and soiled, with minor edgewear. Textblock bottom edge shows sticker residue; bindings mildly shaken; reading wear and intermittent soiling. Very Good.

This charming tome is professor T.W. Shannon's self-reported "first attempt to write a book". Within is a wealth of advice for young men who wish to achieve Perfect Manhood, i.e., not become a "namby-pamby, wishy-washy, aimless, shiftless, purposeless, stunted, dwarfed, unambitious ne'er-do-well" with diarrhea of the testicles. Without giving too much away, one may attain this state by abstaining from dancing with hussies (and their heaving bosoms), staying away from the theatre (with its "semi-nude" actresses engaging in "knee-dress dancing"), asking one's "best girl" to please stop sending those nudies, and getting a daily dose of good old Vitamin Church (and laxatives).