The Birth of the Pill: How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution (51 page)

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Authors: Jonathan Eig

BOOK: The Birth of the Pill: How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution
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CHAPTER TEN

102
“He wasn’t afraid to go out on a limb”
: Seymour Lieberman, telephone interview conducted by the author, October 2011.
104
“Don’t be so scrupulous, John”
: Loretta McLaughlin,
The Pill, John Rock, and the Church: The Biography of a Revolution
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1982), p. 14.
104
Rock’s diary from 1907
: Margaret Marsh and Wanda Ronner,
The Fertility Doctor
:
John Rock and the Reproductive Revolution
(Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), p. 13.
105
hustle between two exam rooms
: Rachel Achenbach, interview conducted by the author, October 2011.
105
and he was “Dr. Rock”
: Transcript of Loretta McLaughlin interview conducted by Rachel Achenbach, undated, CLM.
105
“a very poor scientist”
: Ibid.
106
“without dire consequences”
: James Reed,
From Private Vice to Public Virtue: The Birth Control Movement and American Society Since 1830
(New York: Basic Books, 1978), p. 188.
106
served as an ambulance driver
: McLaughlin,
The Pill, John Rock, and the Church
, p. 17.
107
“natural fullness of ecstasy”
: John Rock, “Sex, Science and Survival,”
Eugenics Review
56, no. 2 (1964), p. 73.
107
“shameful and intrinsically vicious”
: Janet E. Smith,
Humanae Vitae: A Generation Later
(Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 1991), p. 7.
109
his controversial cause
: Leslie Woodcock Tentler,
Catholics and Contraception: An American History
(New York: Cornell University Press, 2004), p. 115.
109
“ensure group survival”
: Ibid., pp. 77–78.
110
“remain a Catholic”
: Margaret Sanger to Marion Ingersoll, February 18, 1954, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC.
110
“reformed Catholic”
: Katharine Dexter McCormick to Margaret Sanger, July 21, 1954, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC.
111
“I don’t think that Roman Catholicism”
: “Planed Fertility,”
Time
, February 9, 1948.
111
“superstition, science, and symbolism”
: John Rock and David Loth, “Birth Control Is Not Enough,”
Coronet
, June 1950, 67–72.
114
reverse the procedure
: Marsh and Ronner,
The Fertility Doctor
, p. 131.
115
“may be considered as deviants”
: Elaine Tyler May,
Barren in the Promised Land: Childless Americans and the Pursuit of Happiness
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997), p. 172.
115
“basic urge and need”
: Ibid., p. 153.
115
“frustrated, but valiantly adventuresome”
: Marsh and Ronner,
The Fertility Doctor
, p. 154.
116
chatted between sessions
: Albert Q. Maisel,
The Hormone Quest
(New York: Random House, 1965), p. 119.
116
he wouldn’t drop dead
: Marsh and Ronner,
The Fertility Doctor
, p. 155.
116
careful not to make promises
: Transcript of Luigi Mastroianni interview conducted by Leon Speroff, undated.
116
“they wanted to try it”
: McLaughlin,
The Pill, John Rock, and The Church
, p. 109.
117
fifty milligrams of progesterone
: Laura V. Marks,
Sexual Chemistry
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2001), p. 93.
117
“conception could not occur”
: Ibid., p. 110.
119
nineteen shares valued at $921.50
: P. E. Tillman to Gregory Pincus, June 16, 1953, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC.
119
where it would solidify into a pellet
: Gregory Pincus to Al Raymond, November 16, 1953, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC.
119
gave him a green light
: Al Raymond to Gregory Pincus, November 12, 1953, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC.
119
not to publicize their involvement
: Gregory Pincus to Victor Drill,
December 15, 1954, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC.
119
“going against Nature”
: McLaughlin,
The Pill, John Rock, and the Church
, p. 111.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

122
“workings of the human body”
: Albert Q. Maisel,
The Hormone Quest
(New York: Random House, 1965), p. ix.
124
“rising standard for the entire world”
: Andrea Tone,
Devices and
Desires: A History of Contraceptives in America
(New York: Hill and Wang, 2001), p. 208.
124
“tsunami of male lust”
: Mary Louise Roberts,
What Soldiers Do: Sex and the American GI in World War II France
(Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2013), p. 9.
125
median age for marriage . . . was 20.1
: “American Families: 75 Years of Change,”
Monthly Labor Review
, Bureau of Labor Statistics, March 1990, p. 7.
127
“All animals play around”
: Beth Bailey,
Sex in the Heartland
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999), p. 46.

CHAPTER TWELVE

128
high hopes for a dramatic outcome
: Gregory Pincus, “Report of Progress,” January 23, 1953, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC.
129
“patentable discoveries”
: Paul Henshaw to Gregory Pincus, January 26, 1953, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC .
129
“forward thinking required by research”
: Esther Katz, ed.,
The Selected Papers of Margaret Sanger
, Vol. 3 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2010), p. 349.
129
“would agree to such a provision”
: Paul Henshaw to Gregory Pincus, January 26, 1953, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC.
129
“a knotty question”
: Gregory Pincus to Paul Henshaw, January, 28, 1953, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC.
129
can the human testing begin?
: Paul Henshaw to Gregory Pincus, February 17, 1953, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC.
130
“a little faster. . . .”
: Gregory Pincus to Paul Henshaw, February 19, 1953, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC.
130
“thirty to forty women”
: Gregory Pincus to Planned Parenthood,
“Application for a Grant,” April 29, 1953, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC.
131
“fundamental facts” . . . “available resources”
: Gregory Pincus to Paul Henshaw, March 30, 1953, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC.
131
“passed over the research laboratory”
: Gregory Pincus,
The Control of Fertility
(New York: Academic Press, 1965), p. 8.
133
meet somewhere in the middle
: Transcript of Luigi Mastroianni interview conducted by Leon Speroff, undated.
133
both of which were in Worcester
: “Dr. H. L. Kirkendall Dies in Worcester,”
Lowell Sun
, May 9, 1955.
134
250 and 300 milligrams a day
: Gregory Pincus to Henry Kirkendall, April 30, 1953, LOC.
134
Worcester Foundation in Shrewsbury
: Dr. Henry Kirkendall, Jr., telephone interview conducted by the author, April 2013.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

135
“on our side or not”
: Russell Marker interview conducted by Jeffrey L. Sturchio, 1987 (Philadelphia Chemical Heritage Foundation, Oral History Transcript #0068).
137
“a place I could work on them”
: Ibid.
138
others were doing revolutionary work
: Carl Djerassi,
This Man’s Pill:
Reflections on the 50th Birthday of the Pill
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), p. 38.
138
“funky little vacation house”
: Djerassi,
This Man’s Pill
, p. 43.
139
“Not in our wildest dreams”
: Andrea Tone,
Devices and Desires: A History of Contraceptives in America
(New York: Hill and Wang, 2001),
p. 218.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

140
“the crowds are so great”
: Katharine Dexter McCormick to Margaret Sanger, May 15, 1953, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC.
140
hot and humid Monday
: Katharine Dexter McCormick to Margaret Sanger, Western Union telegram, June 1, 1953; “First Heat Wave Will End Today,”
Lowell Sun
, June 8, 1953.
141
“This is the place”
: Isabelle Chang, telephone interview conducted by the author, July 2013.
141
half of the $17,500
: Paul Henshaw to Gregory Pincus, May 28, 1953, LOC.
141
a check for $10,000
: Gregory Pincus to Paul Henshaw, June 10, 1953, LOC.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

143
because no work gets done
: Katharine Dexter McCormick to Margaret Sanger, December 27, 1954, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC.
143
“the scope of the tests in action”
: Katharine Dexter McCormick to Margaret Sanger, September 28, 1953, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC.
143
to fund Pincus’s research beyond January 1954
: Margaret Sanger to Katharine Dexter McCormick, October 5, 1953, Armond Fields Collection, USC.
143
power struggle with William Vogt
: Margaret Sanger to Marion Crary Ingersoll, February 18, 1954, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC.
143
“a simple, cheap, contraceptive”
: Margaret Sanger to Katharine Dexter McCormick, February 23, 1954, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC.
144
“development of a simple contraceptive”
: Ibid.
144
“bring it to a final conclusion”
: Margaret Sanger to Katharine Dexter McCormick, October 12, 1953, Armond Fields Collection, USC.
144
“a bit of luck these days”
: Gregory Pincus to Al Raymond, May 8, 1953, Gregory Pincus Papers, LOC.
145
Syntex had performed better
: Transcript of Gabriel Bialy interview conducted by Leon Speroff, August 2007.
145
8 percent of the Foundation’s total income
: “Tenth Anniversary Report, 1944–1954,” Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology, LOC.
145
one-third of Pincus’s $15,000 annual salary
: Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology Finance Committee Report, November 3, 1953, Worcester Foundation Papers, UM.
145
“weary & depressed”
: Margaret Sanger to Juliet Barrett Rublee, January 26, 1953, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC.
146
she wrote to the same friend
: Ibid.
146
“not to do any public speaking ever again”
: Margaret Sanger to Dorothy Hamilton Brush, January 14, 1952, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC.
146
urged her to retire
: Esther Katz, ed.,
The Selected Papers of Margaret Sanger
, Vol. 3 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2010), p. 345.
146
“Preposterous!”
: Margaret Sanger to Rufus Day, Jr., December 6, 1956, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC.
146
to which she had become accustomed
: Katz,
The Selected Papers of Margaret Sanger
, Vol. 3, p. 319.
146
Cleveland-born socialite
: Dorothy Hamilton Brush to Margaret Sanger, January 6, 1953, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC.
147
“when the slavery of half of humanity”
: Simone de Beauvoir,
The Second Sex
(New York: Random House, 2011), p. 766.
147
“a life time to study & write”
: Margaret Sanger to Juliet Barrett Rublee, February 6, 1953, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC.
147
“put all our energies into research”
:
Fourth International Conference on Planned Parenthood, Report of the Proceedings
, August 17–22, 1953, Stockholm, Sweden (London: International Planned Parenthood Federation, 1953), p. 9.
148
when individuals volunteered for sterilization
: Irene Headley Armes, “A Proposed Program of Research on the Status and Social Demand for Permanent Conception Control in the U.S.A,”
Fourth International Conference on Planned Parenthood
, August 17–22, 1953, Stockholm, Sweden.
148
“both the individual and the community
”: Ibid.
149
“More children from the fit”
: “Intelligent or Unintelligent Birth Contol,”
Birth Control Review
, May 1919, p. 12.
149
just as immigrants applied for visas
: Speech by Margaret Sanger in Hartford, Connecticut, February 11, 1923, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC.
149
“were the government not feeding them”
: Margaret Sanger to Katharine Dexter McCormick, October 27, 1950, Armond Fields Collection, USC.
149
“a privilege, not a right”
: Katz,
The Selected Papers of Margaret Sanger
, Vol. 3, p. 271.
150
“conservative program of social control”
: David M. Kennedy,
Birth Control in America
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1970), p. 121.
151
nothing physical between them:
Lawrence Lader, “Margaret Sanger: Militant Pragmatist Visionary,”
On The Issues
, Spring 1990, http://www.ontheissuesmagazine.com/1990spring/Spr90_Lader.php (accessed February 18, 2014).
151
“I am not happy in past memories”
: Katz,
The Selected Papers of Margaret Sanger
, Vol. 3, p. 333.
151
“inexhaustible flame of your own driving force?”
: Lawrence Lader to Margaret Sanger, July 25, 1952, Margaret Sanger Papers, SSC; Katz,
The Selected Papers of Margaret Sanger
, Vol. 3, p. 333.
152
“could make you quite ill”
: Ibid., p. 344.
152
“its prophet, its driving force”
: Lawrence Lader,
The Margaret Sanger Story
(New York: Doubleday, 1955), p. 340.

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