Description
E. P. Dutton & Co., Published 1935. Hardcover, 96 pp.; 21 cm; frontispiece portrait of the author by Benson and full-page halftone plates after drawings by Tonya.
Rare, out-of-print & unusual books · Since 1997
112
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Catalog notes
Condition & notes
In Good condition, no dust jacket. Red cloth boards with the Erectitude trademark figure stamped in black on front cover, black script lettering on spine. Spine sunned to pale cream, lettering still crisp. Cloth nicked through at corner tips and at head and foot of spine, mild to moderate shelf and edge wear, scattered pale speckling to front cover. Binding tight. Pages mildly toned, endpapers heavily toned and foxed. Otherwise unmarked. Without the errata slip that WorldCat records as inserted before p. 81. A posture-and-beauty system marketed under the registered trade mark Erectitude, its whole principle stated on the title page: lengthen the line between the chin and the waist and you will lengthen your years. Malmstead, author of Your Face and Figure (Penn, 1931), holds that the forward-bending drills of conventional physical culture throw the body off balance and prescribes backward-bending attitudes instead, worked through twelve regional routines (hips, waist and abdomen; chin, waistline and abdomen; and so on) and followed by chapters on standing, sitting and walking, skin, neck, plucked eyebrows and dyed hair, feet and poise. The title page states that Miss Malmstead herself posed for Tonya the artist, whose striking full-page plates render her as an elongated, bob-haired Art Deco nude in ankle-strap heels against diagonal bands and arcs, in the manner of Erté. Released by Dutton on 25 September 1935, it was reviewed by Kirkus, which found it a bit over-ebullient but the basic facts sound, and by the Journal of the American Medical Association on 18 January 1936. The final page carries the author's notice that the system is hers and that she will prosecute anyone who teaches it without her authorization. Contents: What Erectitude Is; Your Needs, The Right Answer; What Keeps Us Young; Awaken the Beauty of the Hips, Waist and Abdomen; Awaken the Beauty of the Chin, Waistline and Abdomen; Awaken the Beauty of the Neck, Shoulders, Arms and Bust; Awaken the Beauty of the Arms, Bust and Waist; Awaken the Beauty of the Shoulders, Waistline and Abdomen; Awaken the Beauty of the Thighs, Calves and Ankles; Awaken the Beauty of the Neck, Shoulders and Arms; Awaken the Beauty of the Waist, Abdomen and Legs; Awaken the Beauty of the Bust, Waist, Abdomen and Hips; Awaken the Beauty of the Waist, Hips, Knees and Ankles; Awaken the Beauty of the Back, Abdomen and Hips; Correct Standing, Sitting and Walking; Correct Posture; Care of the Skin; The Neck; Plucked Eyebrows and Dyed Hair; Feet; Poise; Erectitude Forever.