Paley Maggie. - The Book of the Penis

Clever and hilarious [and] chock full of trivia gems Try it. You'll like it. And you'll learn a lot, too.

Bust

Stuffed with the kind of little facts that come in so useful toward the end of a dinner party Find in this cute volume everything you wanted to know or didn't want to know about the penis.

The New York Observer

An impressive collection of material.Newsday

[Filled with] wonderful bits of esoteric erotica Spirited, filled with fact and some fancy, emphasizing the penis's power to drive male behavior but designed to make both women and men more comfortable with the dreaded wordand perhaps even the actuality penis.Kirkus Reviews

What Paley brings us in this well-researched work is everything you wanted to know and even things you never considered knowing . There's an overwhelming amount of tradition, reverence, superstition, exhibitionism, worship, and frivolity that has swirled around the penis since the beginning of time . [Paley] tackles the topic thoroughly.Channel Magazine

A totally satisfying read.The Weekend Post

Penis touches on every conceivable aspect, characteristic, practice, and custom related to the penis . Paley has created a book that educates and entertains, an all too rare coupling. You'll learn anatomy and physiology, history, biology, even anthropological customs, and laugh your ass off too.New Times Los Angeles

Although it's small in stature, [The Book of the Penis] manages to measure up quite admirably.Next

The supreme explorers guide to an organ more powerful than the biggest Wurlitzer Fascinating Paley covers everything you ever wondered about but were afraid to ask.Edge

Substantive fascinating light-hearted entertaining Paley is tireless in her curiosity.

Washington Blade

An entire lesson in anthropology.

The Hartford Advocate

Instead of thinking with our penises, as men straight, gay and bi tend to, we males are invited by this book to think about them a delightfully light, investigative report [with an] amusingly dry wit.Frontiers

Eclectic, breezy [and] a lot of fun.LA Weekly

Excellent and well-researched From the Greek penis godsPriapus, Dionysus, and Hermesto the Hollywood movie godsErroll Flynn, Gary Cooper, and Steve McQueenMs. Paley has gathered together everything we need to know about penises, and one or two things we don't . Penises are not weapons, they are the very core of men's spiritual and physical identity, and The Book of the Penis by Maggie Paley is a good place to learn about why that is.Outlines

Copyright 1999 by Maggie Paley

Illustrations copyright 1999 by Sergio Ruzzier

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, or the facilitation thereof, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Any members of educational institutions wishing to photocopy part or all of the work for classroom use, or publishers who would like to obtain permission to include the work in an anthology, should send their inquiries to Grove/Atlantic, Inc., 841 Broadway, New York, NY 10003.

Published simultaneously in Canada

Printed in the United States of America

Fakir Musafar excerpt from Modem Primitives copyright 1989 V/Search Publications

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Paley, Maggie.

The book of the penis / Maggie Paley ; illustrations by Sergio Ruzzier.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN-13: 9780802195203

1. PenisHistory. 2. PenisSocial aspects. I. Title.

GT498.P4P35 1999

573.6'36dc21 99-20348

Design by Charles Rue Woods

Grove Press

an imprint of Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

841 Broadway

New York, NY 10003

Distributed by Publishers Group West

www.groveatlantic.com

06 07 08 09 10 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

THE NATURE OF PENISES

ErectionsPhysiology of an ErectionThinking with your Dick

What's Wrong with Small?How Big Is Big?Dicks on DisplaySmall, Etc.Penis Size in Ancient Greece and RomeHomosexual MenHeterosexual MenDo Big Dicks Have More Fun?Women Talk About Penis SizePenis Enlargement SurgeryPumping It UpWeighing It DownMilking ItTwo Comparative Studies of Penises

PENIS CULTURE

Phallic TalesIdeas About ProcreationContemporary Penis Worship

Famous Artists Do EroticaPenis Art in the 1990sSelected Penis ArtistsTwo Artists Whose Subject Is DicksMore Famous Penises in Art

Penis MoviesX-rated Videos

LanguageLiteratureMemorable Penises in Literature

Things Men Wear That Draw Attention to Their DicksPhallic Symbols in Fashion SuitsRock & RollTight JeansMale VanityAmerican Penis Worship

CUSTOMIZED PENISES

Circumcision by FireThe Circumcising HeronSubincisionOther Penis Mutilation CeremoniesJewsMuslimsUses of the ForeskinTo Circumcise or NotForeskins and SexUncircumcisingCastration

Penis PiercingThe Aesthetic Penis The Ascetic PenisBasic Male Genital PiercingsPenis InsertsPenis Tattoos Because It's There

THE SECRET LIFE OF MEN

The Case Against MasturbationCircle JerksJacking with JackFun Ways to Masturbate

Advanced Fellatio

Multiple Orgasms for MenWays to Delay Ejaculation

Chippendale'sThe Big-Dick Contest The Gaiety

Modern DildosCock Rings

Preventive Medicine for Impotence Remedies for Impotence

HollywoodSportsPenises as Relics Famous Uses of Penis SkinFish and Animals with Notable PenisesFamous Pop Culture PenisesHoward SternU.S. PresidentsWriters and Their Penises Famous for Their Dicks Alone

U ntil recently, few people used penis, the word, in conversation. It seemed, somehow, too naked. At least slang expressions had a comradely feeling. Dick, cock, prick, peckerthey were things you could whisper with affection, or growl with affectionate disdain, or use to curse with. Then in 1993 John Wayne Bobbitt, a small-town Southern ex-Marine, had his penis lopped off by his wife and sewn back on, and the story was so sensational that the word was all over the news. The New York Times, which had used it only three times in the preceding twenty years, was printing it every day. Late-night talk-show hosts began to make jokesfirst about Bobbitt's penis, then about penises in general. Slowly the word spread, until it was even coming up in small talk, with people you hardly knew. The speaker who used it always got credit for franknessbut the word still made most people wince. After all, in the West, at least, we were brought up to pretend the penis wasn't there.

Since I first started working on this book I've had countless conversations about penises, all of them somewhat embarrassing. In the first place, once the penis comes up, almost anything you say becomes a double entendre. So many simple basic words are penis-related: in, out, hard, soft, head, tail and so on. I was also embarrassed by the unspoken question I often felt hovering in the air. It was the question my father would have asked had he still been alive: What went wrong, darling? Aren't you a lady anymore?

The first time I remember seeing a penis I was maybe ten years old, taking the subway home from school by myself. While I was waiting for the train, a man down the platform took his penis out of his pants and showed it to me. He was a black man. I was so intent on not noticing any such thing that at first I imagined he was offering me a chocolate-covered candy bar. I knew just enough to turn the other way and find a nice older woman to stand next to, pretending she was my mother.