Anonymous
Memoir My Secret Life by "Walter", Reprint, Choose One or More PB
Memoir My Secret Life by "Walter", Reprint, Choose One or More PB
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10 volumes 20cm x 13.3cm, approximately 300-320pp each.
Story Title: My Secret Life
Issue #: Date of Publication: 1960s (reprint)
Edition: 1960s Reprint (privately printed style)
Publisher: Privately Printed for Subscribers (reprint edition, likely Amsterdam-style or US underground)
Country of Origin: Netherlands / United States (reprint)
Language: English
Cover Price: 5.00 per volume (as marked)
Writers: Anonymous (“Walter”)
Characters: “Walter” (narrator) and numerous Victorian-era women
Key Facts: Famous anonymous Victorian erotic memoir detailing the sexual exploits of a wealthy Englishman. These are the common 1960s reprint editions issued in small volumes with plain wrappers and the $5.00 price, widely circulated in the underground market after the original 1888 private printing.
Page Count: Varies per volume (typically 200–400+ pages each)
History: The work itself is enormous, amounting to over one million words, the eleven original volumes amounting to over 4,000 pages. The text is repetitive and highly disorganised, and the literary quality is negligible, but its frank discussion of sexual matters and other hidden aspects of Victorian life make it a rare and valuable social document. According to Steven Marcus, it is virtually the only source for information on London Houses of Prostitution, in which Walter spent many hours. It has been described as "one of the strangest and most obsessive books ever written".
- Author: Anonymous (Widely attributed to Henry Spencer Ashbee, a Victorian bibliographer and erotica collector).
- Imprint: Amsterdam: Privately Printed for Subscribers.
- Original Publication Year: 1888 (The series was printed between 1888 and 1894).
- Original Publisher: Likely Auguste Brancart, a Belgian publisher based in Amsterdam who specialised in "forbidden" literature.
- Historical Significance
- While originally banned as "smut," historians now view My Secret Life as a rare and invaluable social document. Because "Walter" was obsessive about detail, he recorded the voices, slang, prices, and living conditions of the Victorian underclass—specifically prostitutes and servants—that mainstream writers like Charles Dickens or Thomas Hardy could never describe due to the censorship of the era.
- • The Original (1888): The true first edition was limited to only 25 copies. These were printed on high-quality paper with specific watermarks (like "Van Gelder"). A complete 11-volume set of the originals is extremely rare and can sell for over $40,000 (£32,500) at auction houses like Christie's.
- • Reprints: Because the book was banned for so long, many clandestine reprints appeared throughout the 20th century.
- 1930s-1960s: Pirated editions often used the "Amsterdam 1888" text on the cover to bypass authorities or add "collector" appeal, even if they were printed much later in New York or London. There's 5.00 on the front cover which may refer to New York?
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