Nudist Society was important to me, but I never got around to Virgil Tibbs. I have Googled William Hartman and Marilyn Fithian and come up dry. If you, Evan, or anybody has their stories, I'd be obliged.
I have never read any of their other work, but they were a married couple who were influential in the field of sex research. You can find their obituaries in the LA Times and NY Times but you might have to pay for access to their online archives.
Thanks. It was a bright idea to give nudists a questionnaire and the MMPI. Hartman's Introduction has a passage that includes this: "We talk at length about honesty, self-revelation, establishing good relations with others—yet one of the most serious moral offenses that can be committed in our society is for one to appear as a basic biological entity in any social situation." That's why we call it naturism.
John Ball also wrote what I consider to be one of the best political novels in the 1970s's, "The First Team." Highly recommended, and in my view better than the ones by Fletcher Knebel and Alex Haley.
I will check that out! I’ve ventured into some of his other novels under the name Ball and each one surprises me with the diversity of the subject matter compared with all the rest. His writing is always concise and engaging no matter what world he explores.
I was a big fan of his mystery novels. "Cool Cottontail" was the first novel I read that treated nudism seriously. Adding the controversial notion of white females being casually nude in front of - and friendly to - a black man probably made it much too hot for anyone to do a movie. It would probably fly today.
Ball also touched on that theme in "Heat of the Night." A white cop took Tibbs through a patrol route that had been altered so that he wouldn't see a white women who liked to undress in her window with the shades up. The misdirection turned out to be an important factor in slowing the resolution of the case.
Another good novel by him was "Johnny Get Your Gun," about a 9 year old who steals his father's gun to get his stolen radio back from by a bully.
Nudist Society was important to me, but I never got around to Virgil Tibbs. I have Googled William Hartman and Marilyn Fithian and come up dry. If you, Evan, or anybody has their stories, I'd be obliged.
I have never read any of their other work, but they were a married couple who were influential in the field of sex research. You can find their obituaries in the LA Times and NY Times but you might have to pay for access to their online archives.
Thanks. It was a bright idea to give nudists a questionnaire and the MMPI. Hartman's Introduction has a passage that includes this: "We talk at length about honesty, self-revelation, establishing good relations with others—yet one of the most serious moral offenses that can be committed in our society is for one to appear as a basic biological entity in any social situation." That's why we call it naturism.
John Ball also wrote what I consider to be one of the best political novels in the 1970s's, "The First Team." Highly recommended, and in my view better than the ones by Fletcher Knebel and Alex Haley.
I will check that out! I’ve ventured into some of his other novels under the name Ball and each one surprises me with the diversity of the subject matter compared with all the rest. His writing is always concise and engaging no matter what world he explores.
I was a big fan of his mystery novels. "Cool Cottontail" was the first novel I read that treated nudism seriously. Adding the controversial notion of white females being casually nude in front of - and friendly to - a black man probably made it much too hot for anyone to do a movie. It would probably fly today.
Ball also touched on that theme in "Heat of the Night." A white cop took Tibbs through a patrol route that had been altered so that he wouldn't see a white women who liked to undress in her window with the shades up. The misdirection turned out to be an important factor in slowing the resolution of the case.
Another good novel by him was "Johnny Get Your Gun," about a 9 year old who steals his father's gun to get his stolen radio back from by a bully.