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 increasingly erratic in later life and he died suddenly in Edinburgh in June 1794.
“Though an exhibitionist and entrepreneur, a self-confessed eccentric, and possibly finally mad, Graham was also a man of significant medical ideas. He opposed flesh-eating and excess in food and drink, and advocated cold bathing, fresh air, sleeping on hard beds, and other aspects of a Spartan regime. Hostile to ‘luxury’, he asserted that illness was caused by wearing too much clothing, and he wore nothing woollen. In particular he believed that energetic sexual performance was the secret and the sign of a healthy existence. While advocating the use of erotica as sex aids, he was a fierce critic of practices he regarded as depraved, in particular prostitution (though wives could learn from whores the erotic arts) and masturbation—he stated that ‘every act of self-pollution is an earthquake—a blast—a deadly paralytic stroke’ (J. Graham, Lecture on … Generation, 1780, 20). Though often treated by historians as a mere charlatan, in truth Graham was an enthusiast whose views, albeit carried to extremes, were actually highly typical of his age.” (ODNB)
A rare opportunity to purchase a wide-ranging collection of material by and related to Graham which was carefully assembled over a long period of time by the magician, actor and collector Ricky Jay (1946-2018) who was no doubt enticed by Graham’s ability as a great showman. The collection was not offered in any of the recent sales of Jay’s library but instead was retained as a whole and sold directly by the family.
[A FULL DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION IS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST].
