Love & Death

Abstract

After his break with Kinsey, Legman aimed to make a place for himself among New York City intellectuals as a full-time writer and editor on topics of sex. Between 1946 and 1948, he was at work drafting Love & Death, a series of essays on the effects of censorship and repression on American culture. Love & Death was an early foray into the criticism of mass culture and an early content analysis of comic books, detective fiction, and stereotypes of women in mass culture. In it Legman argued that the repression of sex in mass culture inevitably led to a sick and violent society. This chapter shows Legman developing and circulating his essays among New York’s writers and editors, unpacks his negative critique of mass culture, and presents the responses of some of his prominent readers. Although the book was rejected by several dozen publishers, Legman got attention for his views. Through Fredric Wertham, one of the principal psychiatrists in New York City, Legman gave a public lecture on psychoanalytic approaches to comic books. Also discussed is Legman’s marriage to his first wife, Beverley Keith, and the salons they held at their tiny house in the Bronx.