Awful Library Books

How to be attractive
Bennett
1951, 2d ed., rev. and enl.

Submitter: The original edition was from 1948. Our copy does not have the cover shown – the library assistant who discovered this brilliant work (and read it cover to cover) found the cover on the web. We were struck by the fact that, for the most part, being attractive in this volume means being attractive to men (although there is that token glance at being attractive to women–but not that way, of course). The three-page discourse on what do to if a man becomes “fresh” (do some serious soul-searching and blame yourself) is particularly revealing. We were also charmed by the photograph of the woman moisturizing her hands (this photo was part of a two-page spread on the subject)–the child looks like he’s plotting serial murder. We are an academic library, and are happy to be weeding this little volume from our collection.

Holly: These self-care books for women in the 50’s just kill me. The woman on the cover looks like a manikin or a Stepford Wife or something. And submitter is right about the first picture below. All I can think is “It puts the lotion on its skin.”