ABOUT THIS BOOK

Obscene, libidinous, loathsome, lascivious. Those were just some of the ways critics described the nineteenth-century weeklies that covered and publicized New York City’s extensive sexual underworld. Publications like the Flash and the Whip—distinguished by a captivating brew of lowbrow humor and titillating gossip about prostitutes, theater denizens, and sporting events—were not the sort generally bound in leather for future reference, and despite their popularity with an enthusiastic readership, they quickly receded into almost complete obscurity. Recently, though, two sizable collections of these papers have resurfaced, and in The Flash Press three renowned scholars provide a landmark study of their significance as well as a wide selection of their ribald articles and illustrations.

Including short tales of urban life, editorials on prostitution, and moralizing rants against homosexuality, these selections epitomize a distinct form of urban journalism. Here, in addition to providing a thorough overview of this colorful reportage, its editors, and its audience, the authors examine nineteenth-century ideas of sexuality and freedom that mixed Tom Paine’s republicanism with elements of the Marquis de Sade’s sexual ideology. They also trace the evolution of censorship and obscenity law, showing how a string of legal battles ultimately led to the demise of the flash papers: editors were hauled into court, sentenced to jail for criminal obscenity and libel, and eventually pushed out of business. But not before they forever changed the debate over public sexuality and freedom of expression in America’s most important city.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Patricia Cline Cohen is professor of history at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the author of The Murder of Helen Jewett. Timothy J. Gilfoyle is professor of history at Loyola University Chicago and the author of City of Eros. Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz is professor of American studies and history at Smith College and the author of Rereading Sex.

REVIEWS

“A fascinating survey of the long-forgotten ‘flash’ newspapers of the 1840s and of the raucous urban sexual cultures, explosive sexual scandals, and heated debates over sexual liberty and morality those newspapers chronicled, provoked, and lampooned.”

— George Chauncey, author of Gay New York

"Cohen, Gilfoyle and Horowitz, history professors and chroniclers of 19th-century American sexuality, offer an engaging scholarly examination of the little-known weekly newspapers that reported on the sexual underworld of 1840s New York. . . . A thorough account of this quirky, salacious moment in journalism, readers familiar with New York will find a city both foreign and familiar, and a sense that the local weekly used to be a lot more fun."

— Publishers Weekly

"The 'flash' papers of 1840s New York knew their readership, and their readership knew what it wanted: sporting news, theater gossip, humor, and not a little pornography. . . . The Flash Press traces the papers' brief but turbulent run through the litigation and public outcry that eventually shut them down. . . . Although the sporting weeklies were short-lived, First-Amendment victories for today's risqué periodicals suggest that the earlier papers were ahead of their time. As the authors of The Flash Press note, 'Seen from the perspective of the early 21st century, the editors of the flash press certainly have the last laugh.'"

— Chronicle Review

"Everyone interested in knowing what New York City was like before the Civil War . . . will want to have a peek. The authors have managed to unearth and collate a remarkable amount of enriching detail about a curiously fleshy moment in the history of New York publishing. . . . Thanks to the . . . meticulous research of these three scholars, we once again have a way of looking through a tiny, smudged window into New York's long-past illicit life."

— Nicholson Baker, New York Times Book Review

"[The book] contains copious excerpts from the flash press, in which an overlooked world of fops, nymphs and bawds is dragted kicking and screaming back to life."

— George Pendle, Financial Times

"This is a scholarly book on a racy topic, and it is a surprise to find the lively, accessible, copiously illustrated narrative of its first part accompanied by more than 40 pages of equally interesting endnotes. It may be read happily by general readers and specialists."

— Laurel Brake, Times Higher Education

"Not only do the authors give a history of the papers, a summary of their contents, a description of the sexual politics of the time . . . but also almost half of the book's text is reprints in full of stories from the press. The flash press must have been shocking entertainment in its time, and The Flash Press proves to be entertaining history in our own."

— Rob Hardy, Commercial Dispatch

"The book represents a significant contribution to the field of cultural history. [It] opens a significant new window on antebellum urban culture.

— Amanda Frisken, American Historical Review

"A tour de force of archival recovery, deft contextualization, and scrupulous editing that is certain to have an immediate and lasting impact on our understanding of New York City's print culture, sexual underworlds, and much else besides. . . . The Flash Press is as pleasing to look at as it is provocative to read. The work of three historians at the top of their game, it will doubtless encourage many others to explore the flash genre, while remaining for the forseeable future the definitive study."

— Leon Jackson, New York History

"Scholars will be thrilled by the wealth of resources here. The combination of these primary sources and the authors' compelling reinterpretation of antebellum New York culture make the book an economical and pedagogically valuable option for classes in cultural, urban, media, or legal history. They also make The Flash Press a thought-provoking and entertaining read for both a scholarly and a general audience."

— Paul Ringel, H-Net Review

"A book that I believe should be on the shelf of every antebellum sociocultural historian. . . . This book represents an important intervention in some recent scholarhsip that has too readily accepted the shibboleth of Victorian sexual repression. . . . It also sets new interpretative directions for print culture specialists."

— Ronald J. Zboray, Journal of American History

"An important contribution to studies in legal history, print culture, and the history of sexuality."

— Wendy A. Woloson, Journal of the Early Republic

"... to the overstimulated modern blogger and bloggee, The Flash Press is a welcome reminder that scandal sheets were a far cry from the online super porn of our tasteless time."

— Journal of Pop

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

Part I. The Flash Press
1 Beginnings: Rivalry and Satire
2 Sexual Politics
3 Trials and Tribulations
4 Legacies

Part II. Flash Press Excerpts
1 Purposes
“Revival of the Whip,” Whip, October 15, 1842.

2 Libertinism
“The Conspiracy against the Rake,” Rake, September 3, 1842.
“Whoredom in New York,” Whip and Satirist of New-York and Brooklyn, April 9, 1842.
“An Avowal of Love,” Weekly Rake, July 30, 1842.

3 Brothel Life
“Destruction of the National Theatre,” Dixon’s Polyanthos, June 6, 1841.
“The Frail Fair,” Whip, August 6, 1842.
“The Princess Julia’s Ball,” Whip, January 14, 1843.
“Lives of the Nymphs, No. 11.: Amanda Green,” Sunday Flash, October 17, 1841.
“Lives of the Nymphs.: Amanda B. Thompson and Her Attache,” True Flash, December 4, 1841.
“Our first walk about Town,” Whip, October 15, 1842.
“Scandalous,” Whip, July 30, 1842.
“The Battery Spy,” Whip, July 9, 1842.
“The beautiful and divine Elizabeth Perkins,” Flash, July 3, 1842.
“A Star,” Whip, February 11, 1843.
“The Brothel Expose,--No. 6.: Mrs. Bowen, of Church street,” Whip, July 30, 1842.

4 Heterosexuality
“Obscene Pictures,” New York Sporting Whip, February 11, 1843.
“Adultery and Fornication,” Flash, October 31, 1841.
“Sketches of Characters---No. 16.: The Chambermaid,” Whip and Satirist of New York and Brooklyn, April 9, 1842.
“Making Love in the Streets,” Whip, January 1, 1842.
“Fair Sex,” New York Sporting Whip, January 28, 1843.
“To the Editors of the Whip,” Whip and Satirist of New-York and Brooklyn, March 26, 1842.
“Marriage in High Life,” Whip and Satirist of New-York and Brooklyn, March 19, 1842.
“Masturbation,” Flash, July 10, 1842.
“Utica,” Whip, September 10, 1842.
“Philadelphia Pimps of Fame,” Flash, August [7], 1842.

5 Gossip, Vituperation, and Blackmail
“The Whip Wants to Know,” Whip and Satirist of New-York and Brooklyn, April 2, 1842.
“Spirit-Gas Scorpion,” True Flash, December 4, 1841.
“New York. City Correspondence of the Whip,” Whip, September 10, 1842.
“Madame Trust,” New York Sporting Whip, February 11, 1843.
“Madam Costello, the ‘Female Physician,’” New York Sporting Whip, February 11, 1843

6 Racism, Anti-Amalgamation
“Boz at the Five Points,” Whip and Satirist of New-York and Brooklyn, March 12, 1842.
“Baltimore,” Whip, July 9, 1842.
“Charity Begins at Home,” Whip and Satirist of New-York and Brooklyn, April 2, 1842.

7 Homosexuality
“The Sodomites,” Whip and Satirist of New-York and Brooklyn, January 29, 1842.
“Our Arrow Has Hit the Mark,” Whip and Satirist of New-York and Brooklyn, February 5, 1842.
“Domestic Communications. A Man-Monster,” Flash, August [7], 1842.
“Domestic Communications: Monsters,” Flash, August 14, 1842.
“A Sodomite Nabbed,” Rake, October 1, 1842.

8 Indictments
“Gallery of Rascalities and Notorieties—No. 6: Big Levy,” Sunday Flash, October 17, 1841.
“Our Indictment,” Flash, October 30, 1841.
“Our Course,” Whip, July 23, 1842

9 Sports and Theater in the Flash World
“The Ring,” Flash, September 4, 1842.
“Fight between Two Cock-Chickens, on Tuesday,” Flash, June 23, 1842.
“Canine Fancy,” Whip, November 12, 1842.
“A Day at Hoboken.—The Regatta,” Whip, November 12, 1842.
“Plays, Playhouses and their Players; or, a peep at their performances,” Weekly Rake, October 1, 1842.
“The Third Tier,” Whip and Satirist of New-York and Brooklyn, January 29, 1842.

Acknowledgments
Appendix
Notes
Index

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