^[1]On Friday I posted ^[2] about Sexual Outlaw, Erotic Mystic: The Essential Ida Craddock ^[3], written by Vere Chappell and published by Weiser Books ^[4] on December 1st, 2010.

Two other titles are also being released around the same time, the first in late October, and the second shortly after the publication of Sexual Outlaw, Erotic Mystic ^[3].

Teitan Press ^[5] recently published Lunar and Sex Worship ^[1], which was written by Ida Craddock and includes an introduction by editor Vere Chappell.

From the publisher’s description ^[5]:

Ida Craddock (1857-1902) was a forceful public exponent of women’s rights and sexual freedom whose interest in Theosophy and Spiritualism led her into a profound involvement with the occult. Attacked by conservatives as promoting obscenity and immorality on account of her reforming activities, Craddock became the focus of an organised campaign of persecution. Facing a lengthy prison sentence that she did not expect to survive, she instead took her own life, at age forty-five. [...]

Amongst her papers, Craddock left two manuscripts, “Lunar and Sex Worship” and “Sex Worship (Continued)” that had been commissioned by her patron, the Spiritualist W. T. Stead. They are effectively studies of sexuality in religion and mythology, as viewed through the prism of Craddock’s own experiences and beliefs.

^[6]The other title is Heaven’s Bride: The Unprintable Life of Ida C. Craddock, American Mystic, Scholar, Sexologist, Martyr, and Madwoman ^[6], written by Leigh Eric Schmidt, which is to be released by Basic Books ^[7] on December 7th, 2010.

From the publisher’s description ^[8]:

The nineteenth-century eccentric Ida C. Craddock was by turns a secular freethinker, a religious visionary, a civil-liberties advocate, and a resolute defender of belly-dancing.

Arrested and tried repeatedly on obscenity charges, she was deemed a danger to public morality for her candor about sexuality. By the end of her life Craddock, the nemesis of the notorious vice crusader Anthony Comstock, had become a favorite of free-speech defenders and women’s rights activists. She soon became as well the case-history darling of one of America’s earliest and most determined Freudians.

Craddock sounds like an absolutely fascinating woman, and with three books coming out around the same time, it seems a wonder I’ve never heard of her before.

Looks like I’ll have ample opportunity to play catch up!