A short life of the author
Theodoor Hendrik van de Velde (1873–1937) was a Dutch gynaecologist who published Ideal Marriage: Its Physiology and Technique (Het volkomen huwelijk) in 1926. The book was revolutionary for its time: it described sexual anatomy and technique in clinical but accessible language, insisted that women were entitled to sexual satisfaction within marriage, and discussed foreplay, positions, and the physiology of orgasm with an openness that shocked many contemporaries.
The book was translated into dozens of languages and sold millions of copies. It was banned in some countries and prescribed by marriage counsellors in others. For several decades it was the most widely read sex manual in the Western world, predating the Kinsey Reports and Masters and Johnson.
Modern critics note the book’s limitations: it addressed only married heterosexual couples, treated non-procreative sex with suspicion, and reflected the patriarchal assumptions of its era. Nevertheless, its influence on the normalisation of sexual education was enormous.
Collecting Van de Velde
Ideal Marriage was published in many editions and languages. The English-language first edition (1930, Random House, translated by Stella Browne) is the standard collectible and brings $50–$200 depending on condition. The original Dutch edition (1926) is rarer. The book is collected as a document of the history of sexuality and marriage.