A collection of books, prints and broadsides related to the quack doctor, sex therapist and showman, James Graham (1745-1794).

£45,000 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

The works assembled here provide a startling overview of Graham’s extraordinary life. Born and educated in Scotland he later spent some time in America where he specialised as an oculist and aurist. In Philadelphia he became interested in Benjamin Franklin’s discoveries concerning electricity and when he returned to England in 1774 he utilised electricity in many of his unusual “treatments”. As well as promising to cure most major medical ailments, Graham received much of his frenzied public attention for his work as a proto-sex therapist which culminated in his “celestial bed” one of many showman-like inventions that Graham offered to the public both as a medical aid and as a quasi-theatrical spectacle. The operation of these medical aids (which were conducted by Graham himself) have been described as a “multimedia spectacle” (ODNB) carefully curated and presented to leave the patient feeling cured and the many observers astonished and desperate to share the news of the so-called wonder treatment with many more potential patients. As well as practicing (and performing) in London, Graham toured the United Kingdom and delivered his lectures to large crowds which often made him unpopular with the authorities who at times silenced and even imprisoned hm. Debt, failing mental health and a newly found religious enthusiasm sent Graham in new radical directions and his promotion of pacifism and vegetarianism are all covered in this collection. His already unusual behaviour became in

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