My Secret Life (memoir)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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| The question of whether the book reflects actual experiences (whether of Ashbee or another writer) or is simply erotic fiction, has been much disputed. The question can now probably never be fully resolved but the presence of much mundane detail, the writer's inclusion of incidents that do him little personal credit and the lack of intrinsically improbable circumstances (by contrast with most Victorian erotica) would tend to substantiate its validity. In spite of "Walter's" obsessive womanising over a period of several decades, only a few of his partners are of his own social class. The great majority are either prostitutes, servants or working class women. This would appear to reflect the realities of his era. | The question of whether the book reflects actual experiences (whether of Ashbee or another writer) or is simply erotic fiction, has been much disputed. The question can now probably never be fully resolved but the presence of much mundane detail, the writer's inclusion of incidents that do him little personal credit and the lack of intrinsically improbable circumstances (by contrast with most Victorian erotica) would tend to substantiate its validity. In spite of "Walter's" obsessive womanising over a period of several decades, only a few of his partners are of his own social class. The great majority are either prostitutes, servants or working class women. This would appear to reflect the realities of his era. | ||
| + | [[Walter]] uses the f-word 5,357 times, recording some facts with some 1,200 partners and goes on for 1,100 pages. | ||
| == Notes == | == Notes == | ||
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My Secret Life (1888) is an English book, a lengthy sexual memoir of a Victorian gentleman. Ashbee is suspected to be "Walter", the author and narrator; or, if not the author, perhaps at least the compiler of the book's index, the provider of some editorial assistance, and/or the person who saw the text into print. My Secret Life was first printed in a private edition of eleven volumes, beginning around 1888. Later attempts to publish the work commercially resulted in its being repeatedly banned: in 1932, for example, a New York publisher was arrested for issuing three volumes. It was finally issued successfully by Grove Press in New York in 1966. It wasn't until 1994/1995 that the work in its entirety was published in the UK by Arrow Books a division of Random House UK.
Gershon Legman was the first to link "Walter" and Ashbee in Legman's introduction to the 1962 reprints of Ashbee's bibliographies; the 1966 Grove Press edition of My Secret Life included an expanded version of that essay. Many, however, were unconvinced; and in particular, Steven Marcus's influential The Other Victorians (1966) argued that, based on "Walter"'s personality and biographical details, he clearly could not be Ashbee. Also unconvinced were Drs. Phyllis & Eberhard Kronhausen in their detailed study of "My Secret Life" - "Walter the English Casanova" (1967, Polybooks). More recently, however, Ian Gibson's The Erotomaniac: The Secret Life of Henry Spencer Ashbee (2001, ISBN 0-571-19619-5) provides a detailed review of circumstantial evidence that has again convinced some that Ashbee wrote My Secret Life, presumably weaving fantasy and anecdotes from friends in with his own real-life experiences. Just prior to this (May 2000) Channel 4 UK broadcast a documentary: Walter - The Secret Life of a Victorian Pornographer, which also set out to prove that Ashbee was Walter.
The question of whether the book reflects actual experiences (whether of Ashbee or another writer) or is simply erotic fiction, has been much disputed. The question can now probably never be fully resolved but the presence of much mundane detail, the writer's inclusion of incidents that do him little personal credit and the lack of intrinsically improbable circumstances (by contrast with most Victorian erotica) would tend to substantiate its validity. In spite of "Walter's" obsessive womanising over a period of several decades, only a few of his partners are of his own social class. The great majority are either prostitutes, servants or working class women. This would appear to reflect the realities of his era.
Walter uses the f-word 5,357 times, recording some facts with some 1,200 partners and goes on for 1,100 pages.
Notes
My Secret Life was first published between 1888-1894 in 11 volumes in Amsterdam by the Belgian-born bookseller/publisher Auguste Brancart. For the next 100 years, it remained banned and considered obscene and pornographic. The British Library has a set that it believes was published in about 1880, but "The imprint is probably false; printed in Belgium?". No-one really knows the true identity of "Walter". But biographer Ian Gibson claims it is the pen name of one Henry Spencer Ashbee. Only 20-25 sets of My Secret Life were originally printed, and sold at ú60 per set, an enormous sum for the times, equivalent to over ú4000 ($6000) at today's prices.
Famous People who owned My Secret Life
- Aleister Crowley
- Harold Lloyd
- Josef von Sternberg
- George Mountbatten
1932 New York publisher issue 3 volumes of My Secret Life before being arrested
1964 In his book The Other Victorians (New York, 1964), Steven Marcus makes a case that Ashbee was not the author. ? 1966 New York publisher Grove Press successfully publishes My Secret Life, 78 years after original publication in two books. The introduction by Gershon Legman suggest that Ashbee is the author.
1967 Pendulum Press of Atlanta Georgia publishes a facsimile of all 11 volumes of the 1888 edition of My Secret Life
1967 Drs. Eberhard and Phyllis Kronhausen write Walter. The English Casanova. A presentation of his unique memoirs. 'My secret life' (London, Polybooks) ?
1969 UK Bradford printer Arthur Dobson sentenced to two years as a "professional purveyor of filth" ?
1995 UK publisher successfully issues "Wordsworth Editions" (not in print), 107 years after original publication ?
2000 UK's Channel 4 broadcasts "Walter: The secret life of a Victorian pornographer" (10.30pm, Tuesday, 9 May 2000) ?
2001 The Erotomaniac: The Secret Life of Henry Spencer Ashbee by Ian Gibson published by Faber and Faber; ISBN: 0571196195
2003 An extract of My Secret Life appears on the Web.
2004 The full eleven volumes of My Secret Life appears on the Web
