Rappaport Nathan (2 results)

dj. First printing. First UK edition of this controversial pseudonymous tell-all by a pre-Roe abortion doctor. New York doctor Nathan Rappaport began providing safe but illegal abortion care to women during the Great Depression before being convicted and sentenced to prison in 1950. THE ABORTIONIST, published anonymously after his release, advocated forcefully for legalizing abortion and Rappaport eventually became an active spokesman for the cause. Though fairly widely held institutionally, Rappaport's book remains, even across this and the simultaneous US release, uncommon in the marketplace. 8.5'' x 5.25''. Original full red cloth with gilt spine titles. In original unclipped (21/-net) printed jacket. 220, [2] pages. Jacket toned with some staining to spine and rear panel. Chip to front panel. Book has some foxing to edges, previous owner name to front pastedown. Overall sound. Very good in very good minus jacket. …

First U.K. Edition. First Impression. Octavo (22cm). Publisher's maroon cloth, titled in gilt to spine; dustjacket; 220pp. Tight, clean copy; a Very Good clean copy. In the original dustwrapper, price-clipped, slightly rubbed on rear panel, with an unfortunate closed square tear to the upper left front panel, else crisp, clean example, Very Good or better. Simultaneously published in the U.S. by Doubleday. Pseudonymously published tell-all memoir of Dr. Nathan Rappaport, a New York City physician who, beginning in the Great Depression, provided illegal (but safe) abortions to thousands of clients, performing as many as 27 procedures in a single day before finally going to prison in 1950, after being ratted out by a mobster to whom he'd refused to pay blackmail. Includes case studies (somewhat dramatized) and a lengthy, cogent, pre-Roe argument for legalizing abortion. Following his parole from prison in 1966, Rappaport became an above-ground spokesman for legal abortion, beginning with a lengthy Village Voice profile in 1966. Susan Brownmiller later called him "America's most loquacious abortionist," and he was the subject of an episode of Slate's "Slow Burn" podcast in 2022. For predictable reasons, the book was not a huge seller for either Doubleday or Gollancz, and well-preserved copies are very hard to find.…