Edward Podolsky (1902-1965) doctor and writer

Edward Podolsky, born and raised in New York, was a doctor who also wrote books. In his early years he wrote science fiction, and then essays about science fiction.

His first medical book in 1934, Young women past forty; a modern sex and health primer of the critical years, was advice for the middle-aged woman. He then did advice books: The Doctor Prescribes Colors and The Doctor Prescribes Music. And in 1942 The Modern Sex Manual. 

Podolsky married in 1944 at the age of 42. In 1946 he wrote Post-War Sex Problems and How to Solve Them for returning service men and their brides, and also revised the English translation of Hirschfeld’s The Sexual History of the World War, 4^th edition. He followed that with Red Miracle: The Story of Soviet Medicine in 1947.

In 1953 he published his Encyclopedia of Aberrations: A Psychiatric Handbook.  The Encyclopedia was reviewed by Heine Kohut: “The gravest fault, however, lies not in the alphabetical order of the material but in the use of original papers, culled, apparently in their entirety, from various contemporary publications. While these articles were, of course, chosen with an eye to being sufficiently general, they were yet not planned by their authors to constitute the kind of authoritative summary that the reader of an encyclopedia has the right to expect, at least in approximation.”

The article on “Transvestism” is not signed and is presumably by Podolsky. It summarizes the work and typologies of the sexologists  Krafft-Ebing, Hirschfeld, Moll, Fenichel and others. 

Podolsky was interested in the psychology of murder. In 1954 he published “Mind of the Murderer”, and then in the Medico-Legal Journal in the Decembers of 1959, 1962 and 1965 he published “The Manic Murderer”, “The Epileptic Murderer” and “The Lust Murderer”.

He also wrote for Sexology: Sex Science Illustrated and for One: The Homosexual Magazine.

In 1960 Podolsky connected with Carlson Wade. Their first joint work was Erotic Symbolism; A Study of Fetichism in Relation to Sex. 

This was followed the same year by Transvestism Today; The Phenomena of Men Who Dress as Women. The title page is misleading in that Podolsky is listed as the first author, and his photograph only is on the inside back flap. However he contributed only the Introduction, and a comparison with his “Transvestism” article in his 1953 Encyclopedia of Aberrations shows it to be a minor rewrite of the same. Dr Gutheil has been added but not Harry Benjamin, despite the 1953 symposium at the New York Academy of Medicine that featured both Benjamin and Gutheil.

In 1962 Podolsky and Wade with Epic Publishing Company brought out a six-volume Sexual Behavior Series: Lesbianism, Exhibitionism, Nymphomania, Voyeurism, Transvestism and Fetishism.

In 1967 they published Abnormal Sex Activity, with K.D.S. of Cleveland, and Sexual Masochism: The Sexual Pleasure of Pain and Sexual Sadism: The Sexual Urge of Love and Pain with Stewart Gordon Publications.

Edward Podolsky died in 1965 age 63.

Science Fiction

• “The Figure of Anubis”, Weird Tales, February 1925
• “The Masters from Beyond”, Weird Tales, September 1925
• “Death by Radio”, Amazing Stories. December 1932.
• “The Drug that Kills the Soul”. Unknown Fantasy Fiction, March 1940.
• “Life on Other Planets?”. Planet Stories, Summer 1940.
• “The Human Blood Hound”. Fantastic Adventures, August 1940.

Health and sex

• Young women past forty; a modern sex and health primer of the critical years. Herald Publishing, 1934.
• The Doctor Prescribes Colors: The Influences of Colors on Health and Personality. National Library Press, 1938.
• The Doctor Prescribes Music: the influence of music on health and personality. Frederick A Stokes Company, 1939.
• with James Parker Hendry. Secrets of Love and Marriage, 1941
• The Modern Sex Manual. Cadillac Publishing, 1942.
• Post-War Sex Problems and How to Solve Them. Cadillac Pub Co, 1946. Advice on a range of concerns for the returning serviceman and his bride.
• Magnus Hirschfeld. The Sexual History of the World War. In Collaboration with World- Famous Physicians, Scientists and Historians. New York: Panurge, 1934. Second edition, New York: Falstaff, 1937; 3rd ed., New York: Cadillac, 1941; 4th rev. ed., by Edward Podolsky, 1946.
• “Some Achievements of Soviet Medical Research”. Russian Review, 6,1, September 1946.
• Red Miracle: The Story of Soviet Medicine, The Beechhurst Press, 1947.
• “The mind of the Peeping Tom”. Sexology: Sex Science Magazine Illustrated, 19,2 September 1952.
• Encyclopedia of Aberrations: A Psychiatric Handbook. Philosophical Library, 1953.
• “The Mind of the Fetishist.” Sexology: Sex Science Illustrated. 19,7, February, 1953.
• “Causes of Organic Frigidity”. Sexology: Sex Science Illustrated, 20,7, February 1954.
• “Two-Sexed Individuals”. One: The Homosexual Magazine, July 1954. Online. A discussion of some of Dr Broster’s intersex patients.
• “Mind of the Murderer’. The Journal of Criminal Law, 45, 1, June 1954.
• The Neuroses and their Treatment. Philosophical Library, 1958.
• The Modern Sex Manual. Cadillac Publishing Company, 1958.
• “The Manic Murderer”. Medico-Legal Journal, 27, 4, Dec 1959.
• with Carlson Wade. Erotic Symbolism; A Study of Fetichism in Relation to Sex. Epic Publishing Co Inc., 1960.
• Introduction to Carlson Wade. Transvestism Today; The Phenomena of Men Who Dress As Women. New York: Epic Pub. Co, 1960. Online at Queer Music Heritage.
• “The Epileptic Murderer”. Medico-Legal Journal, 30, 4, Dec 1962.
• with Carlson Wade. Lesbianism. Sexual behavior series, no. 1. New York: Epic Pub. Co, 1962.
• with Carlson Wade. Exhibitionism. Sexual behavior series, no. 2. New York: Epic Pub. Co, 1962.
• with Carlson Wade. Nymphomania. Sexual behavior series, no. 3. New York: Epic Pub. Co, 1962.
• with Carlson Wade. Voyeurism. Sexual behavior series, no. 4. New York: Epic Pub. Co, 1962.
• with Carlson Wade. Transvestism. Sexual behavior series, no. 5. New York: Epic Pub. Co, 1962.
• with Carlson Wade. Fetichism. Sexual behavior series, no. 6. New York: Epic Publ. Co., Inc, 1962.
• “The Lust Murderer”. Medico-Legal Journal, 33, 4, Dec 1965.
• with Carlson Wade. Abnormal Sex Activity. Cleveland, Ohio: K.D.S., 1967.
• with Carlson Wade. Sexual Masochism: The Sexual Pleasure of Pain. Stewart Gordon Publications, 1967.
• with Carlson Wade. Sexual Sadism: The Sexual Urge of Love and Pain. Stewart Gordon Publications, 1967.
• Encyclopedia erotica sexualia: The study of sexual practices, normal and abnormal. Stewart Gordon Publications, 1967.

By Others:

• Heinz Kohut. “Encyclopedia of Aberrations”. Social Service Review, 27,3, Sep 1953.
• “Vintage Publications Attempt to Diagnose Transvestism, Masturbation & Other Sexual ‘Deviations’ “. Dangerous Minds, 01.06.2017. Online.

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