This book examines the life, work and contraversial achievements of Marie Stopes, author and pioneer of the birth control movement in the interwar period. As the centenary of the ground-breaking publication of Married Love approaches, this study traces and reassesses Marie’s remarkable achievements, considering the literary, scientific and political themes of her life’s work. Clare Debenham analyses how Stope’s personal life led her to turn away from palaeobotany to concentrate on transforming the country’s sexual relationships by writing Married Love. Utilising extensive unpublished archive research, biographies, letters, and interviews with her friends and relatives, Debenham demonstrates that Stopes's work on sexual relationships has overshadowed her considerable achievements including her scientific career as a paleaobotantist, her literary success in the interwar period, and her work, with help from suffragists, in establishing the first British birthcontrol clinic.
This book examines the life, work and contraversial achievements of Marie Stopes, author and pioneer of the birth control movement in the interwar period. As the centenary of the ground-breaking publication of Married Love approaches, this study traces and reassesses Marie’s remarkable achievements, considering the literary, scientific and political themes of her life’s work. Clare Debenham analyses how Stope’s personal life led her to turn away from palaeobotany to concentrate on transforming the country’s sexual relationships by writing Married Love. Utilising extensive unpublished archive research, biographies, letters, and interviews with her friends and relatives, Debenham demonstrates that Stopes's work on sexual relationships has overshadowed her considerable achievements including her scientific career as a paleaobotantist, her literary success in the interwar period, and her work, with help from suffragists, in establishing the first British birth control clinic.
Examines Marie Stope's scientific, literary and social achievements and legacy in Britain Demonstrates that Marie Stopes was one of the most important female figures of the twentieth century Utilises extensive archival materials, including personal correspondence and interviews with Stopes’s friends and relatives
Clare Debenham
eugenics twentieth century family planning Married Love contraception feminism gender and sexuality