Heads & headlines;: The phrenological Fowlers

by Madeleine B. Stern

Between the 1830s and the 1930s members of the colorful Fowler family of New York were the leading exponents of phrenology - character analysis based on the donformation of the skull. As the Fowlers - primarily Orson, Edward, Charlotte, Lorenzo, and Lydia - rode the crest of the phrenologizing fervor that swept America, the heads of such notables as Mark Twain, Clara Barton, Walt Whitman, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and John Brown passed under their knowing fingers.

In other crusades the Fowlers also attacked corsets, alcohol, and tobacco. They advocated sex education, women's rights, vegetarianism, and hydropathy -- treatment of various ills by the copious use of water. They lectured far and wide, and hundreds of publications rolled from their presses.

Orson, the original phrenologizing Fowler, innovated octagonal domestic architecture and wrote sex manuals that rival those of today in their frankness. Edward was a mesmeric medium, and Samuel was a crusader against poverty. Lorenzo's wife, Lydia, was the first American woman professor of medicine. Charlotte was an omnipresent worker at the phrenological cabinet, and another sister, Almira, was an early woman physician.

In this book Miss Stern presents the first full-length family portrait of a remarkable group of men and women who not only reflected the individualistic spirit of their age but also made solid contributions to social and medical reforms.

Genres: Biography

348 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Madeleine Bettina Stern was an independent scholar and rare book dealer. She graduated from Barnard College in 1932 with a B.A. in English literature. She received her M.A. in English literature from Columbia University in 1934. Stern was particularly known for her work on the writer Louisa May Alcott. She received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1943 to write a biography of Alcott, which was eventually published in 1950. In 1945, she and her friend Leona Rostenberg opened Rostenberg & Stern Books. Rostenberg and Stern were active members of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America, at a time when few women were members. The pair lived and worked in Rostenberg's house in the Bronx. They were known for creating unique rare book catalogs. In 1960, Stern helped found the New York Antiquarian Book Fair.
Stern and Leona Rostenberg became widely known in the late 1990s while in their late eighties when their memoir on the rare book trade, Old Books, Rare Friends, became a best seller.

Reviews

[Roberta · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Fowler brothers were famous 19th century lecturers, writers, publishers and phrenologists. When you see one of those phrenologist heads (Dr. Gregory House has one in his office) it will probably say "Lorenzo Fowler" on it. His brother, Orson Fowler, set himself up as an authority on phrenology as well as other subjects from architecture to sex. A cult based on his teachings was formed in the mid-west but was ultimately unsuccessful.

This is the only book-length work on the Fowlers and well worth reading.