Heaven's Bride: The Unprintable Life of Ida C. Craddock, American Mystic, Scholar, Sexologist, Martyr, and Madwoman

Traces the life of the nineteenth-century activist for women's rights and free speech, featuring her arrests for promoting progressive views about sexuality and her role as a case subject by an early Freudian scholar.

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LibraryThing member Darrol

I greatly enjoyed this account of the 19th century crank who battled Anthony Comstock's suppression of free speech. I enjoyed this account of her pioneering attempt to bring a positive spin to and accurate information about human sexuality. A lot of good information about other 19th century volumes

that discussed the sexual symbolism in Christianity and other religions. I appreciated the connection between Craddock's heavenly spouse and the legend of the Watchers in Genesis 6 (although Schmidt waits to late in his book to discuss this connection). I am glad that Schmidt debunks the attempt by Theodore Schroeder to turn Craddock into a "Religio-Sexual Maniac".

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LibraryThing member ritaer

The history of Ida C. Craddock clearly demonstrates how deeply any idea that sex can be sacred threatens conventional Christianity. Her insistence on publishing information not just on the physical facts of marital relationships, but also her theories on the spiritual dimension of the sex act

brought down the wrath of Anthony Comstock, self appointed guardian of American purity. Her history would probably have been entirely different if she could have found admittance to the university and obtained the academic credentials to compete in the marketplace of ideas. Even later crusaders against sexual censorship tended to dismiss her as a crank, at least partly because she wrote of her spiritual marriage with a deceased suitor. This book is an important resource for any student of sexology, marriage reform, anti-censorship movements, civil liberties and alternative spirituality in the US.

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