The Intimate Sex Lives of Famous People [antikvár]

Countless books have been written about the anatomy and physiology of sexthe sexual behavior of ordinary people, sexual aberrations, sexual techniques!sexual mores through the ages and in various cultures. On this infinite shelfthere appears one gaping omission. No one, to the best of our knowledge,has yet written a comprehensive volume that reveals the sexual behavior ofwell-known and distinguished men and women in world historyWe were curious to see the lives of noteworthy people made complete.Too many biographers have left out or glossed over the sex lives of theirsubjects. They have served up incomplete people, a crucial part of their livesairbrushed away. We wanted to see the missing facets of these admirable orfascinating personalities to better understand the powerful force that soinevitably affected their psyches and their work. From time to time, whenwe were researching for The People's Almanac and The Book of Lists, wewould stumble upon a long-suppressed piece of intimate information abouta United States president, a European queen, a scientific genius, an artist,that deepened our knowledge of that person. As these hidden facts con-tinued to turn up, we began to believe they deserved a book of their own.It is our hope that certain readers, not too familiar with famous peopleof the past but captivated by their love lives, will be stimulated enough tosearch out the rest of their lives, their successes and failures, in otherwisedefinitive biographies that are available.In undertaking this book, we knew early on that there would be those whowould feel strongly that the sex lives of the celebrated are not fit subjectsfor general readers. But sex is part of every person's being. As the late JusticeWilliam O. Douglas, of the United States Supreme Court, put it: 'The ideaof using censors to bar thoughts of sex is dangerous. A person without sexthoughts is abnormal."The first problem we faced in writing this book was an overabundance otinteresting people to write about. To contain our information in one vo umewe were obliged to make a representative selection from the major helds othuman endeavor. We drew upon persons from the worlds ot art music,literature, business, religion, movies, government. People known for theirsexual activity, such as Casanova and Rudo ph Valentino and MarilynMonroe, are here. But here also are J. Edgar Hoover and Leo Tolstoi andForeplay / xv