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Seduction of the Innocent and Related Books Group (Various, 1941-53).

Currency:USD Category:Books / Antiquarian & Collectible Start Price:155.00 USD Estimated At:350.00 - 1,000,000.00 USD
Seduction of the Innocent and Related Books Group (Various, 1941-53).
<B>Seduction of the Innocent and Related Books Group (Various, 1941-53).</B></I> We're pleased to offer three books by Fredric Wertham in one lot, plus the seldom-seen comic-related book <B>Love and Death</B></I>! The best-known of these books is of course <B>Seduction of the Innocent</B></I> (1953). It's a fascinating account of the reasons comic books should be carefully regulated, written by a child psychiatrist who claimed a direct correlation between reading certain comic books and juvenile delinquency. Dr. Wertham had been crusading against the comic book industry for years before this book was published, writing articles for national publications and testifying before the United States Senate about the dangers the medium posed to the morals of the nation's youth. This is the second version of the original printing, without the bibliography pages 399 and 400, which had appeared in the very limited number of the original version. It's in GD condition, and listed in the Overstreet guide with a GD 2.0 value of $34. The other two books by Wertham in this group, while not exclusively about comic books, do examine the influence of entertainment and the mass media on impressionable minds. <B>Dark Legend</B></I> is Wertham's psychological analysis of one of his patients, a boy who killed his mother. The dust-jacket has blurbs from Richard Wright and Somerset Maugham, no less! It's a 1949 printing of the title, which was first published in 1941. The book is in FR condition. Also in this lot is Wertham's <B>The Show of Violence</B></I>, which discusses what drives people to murder. It's from 1949 and in GD condition. Rounding out the group is a FR/GD copy of the 1949 book <B>Love & Death: A Study in Censorship</B></I> by Gershon Legman. The chapter "Not for Children" focuses on violence in comic books. Anyone interested in the history of comics and the advent of the Comics Code shouldn't pass up this lot. 4 items <BR><BR><B>Important notice:</B> Heritage usually auctions material at the rate of 200-250 lots per hour. On some occasions eBay Live bid software or the Internet may not be able to keep up with the pace of the auction. We recommend placing a realistic absentee bid now as insurance to avoid disappointment. Occasionally the auctioneer may eliminate or reject an eBay Live bid, and the auctioneer may also reopen a lot after the close of the eBay live bidding (usually because we missed an audience bid), and may reject your bid even if it shows you as the winning bidder. By bidding via eBay Live, you agree that Heritage may award the lot to another bidder at its sole discretion under the circumstances described above or any other reasonable circumstances. Since eBay bids are not shown to us until we open the lot on the floor, we treat those bids just like floor bids. In most cases the floor responds before the eBay bid is presented to us, due to Internet lag time, so for consistency we have made it a policy that floor bids are always considered first over tie eBay live bids. Also please note that all Heritage lots purchased through eBay Live carry a 20% Buyer's Premium. Please make sure you read the Terms and Conditions before you bid.