Origin Of The Spencer Spanking Plan?
Every spanko on the internet has seen the Spencer Spanking Plan, which has been circulating as a net.file for as long as there has been an internet. It’s invariably referenced as a “book” although the actual text wouldn’t fill much more than a pamphlet. The author is invariably given as “Dorothy Spencer” but copyright or publication dates vary from the late teens through 1936.
My question to all you smart collectors of spanking literature is this: Does anybody have accurate (heck, any) bibliographic info for the so-called book? Date of publication, publisher, city of publication, anything? Scans of the cover? Heck, scans of the whole thing? An actual original copy in your collection? Anything at all except web pages that repackage an old text file that used to circulate on UseNet?
All I’ve done so far is a quick, but not a thorough, Google search.
Just this once, links in the comments are welcome, if you’ve got any good info about The Plan. Or email me, I’m not fussy.
Thanks!
I found this site. The last publishing of the original book was in the 1950’s. It is out of print and I imagine a collector’s item if you could find a copy. They have printed out the entire original text on the site. Hope this helps.
www spencerplan org
Thanks, Brenna. That’s one I hadn’t seen, and it has some more info on the publishing history. Sort of, if you believe it — like most of these sites it says stuff about the book without being very specific about where the info came from.
I did edit your comment so the url wouldn’t be “linked” — because the stuff about the scholarship there struck me as a potential scam. There’s no information about the organization supposedly administering the scholarship, and the scholarship doesn’t turn up in other online searches. Also, the “Dorothy Spencer set up a scholarship with proceeds from the book” meme strikes me as wildly unlikely, if only because the book is unlikely to have ever made that kind of big money.
I’m still looking for the sort of bibliographic info that one would find in a rare book dealer’s catalog, if anybody has it. Or, of course, any scans or images of the book itself.
I think the whole plan is a great idea and it works to the fullest! And for all us spankos what better way to ensure spanking or getting spanked. I love it!
I did a search at the Library of Congress. Nothing with that title or anything near it has ever been published in the U.S. I’m sort of disappointed.
Sinnamon, I’m not surprised, but like you, a little disappointed.
However it should be pointed out that if it truly did date back to the thirties or before, it would have been an “underground” publication and perhaps not swept into the Library of Congress net.
Well there are entries from the 1800’s in the LOC; however, you’re right, I guess that doesn’t guarantee that it didn’t exist in some kind of “underground” publication. I also did a search at addall.com for the used book. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the site, but it searches just about all the used book search engines. I’ve found very rare books through it. I got no hits there under the title or the author. I sure would’ve like to have been surprsed.
I am a professional rare book dealer : this title is not listed on COPAC (all British libraries) Worldcat (all US and foreign libraries) or on any rare book sites or in auction records. It must be what is usually called a “ghost”. Fun, though!
Sadly, I fear it may have been distributed in ephemeral (unbound) form. One theory: This may have been one of those “back of the magazine” advertised items, spanking porn disguised as marital self-help advice so that it could be safely delivered by mail into the most Comstockian of jurisdictions. If so, it probably arrived on a few cheaply printed sheets, with the buyer lucky to get so much as a pair of staples for a binding.
I thought the Spencer Spanking Plan was published in the Saturday Evening Post… I cannot find the source I remember… multiple pamphlets have been put together invarious formats but all have exactly the same text.
john
I have a photocopy somewhere of what is supposed to be an original. It does not have a date but the typeface is unfamiliar: looks a little like Times New Roman but not quite. Someone sent it to me in about 1994.
Note that one of “Dorthy Spencer’s” rules is about not driving over 40 miles an hour! Whenever this was written, it was prior to the 1950’s.
When I was 16 (I am 44 now), I went into an adult bookstore with my first boyfriend and I found a copy of the Spencer Spanking Plan. It was a small TV Guide sized pamphlet, with some black and white photos. It was in their sale bin, I got it for about 50 cents! It was pretty old then, alas, no idea what the print date of it was.
When I was in my 20’s, I did what many people have done, I threw out ALL of my spanking magazines and erotica. I had a new boyfriend (Vanilla) and I freaked out. I threw out the spencer spanking plan magazine too.
If I only knew then what I know now, sigh.
So, yes, I had an OLD copy of one almost 30 years ago, and it was years old when I found it.
Not much to go on, but I had it in my hands for several years!
Jennifer Brooks
Jennifer, that’s awesome. Enough data points like that and I’ll eventually track one of these down. Thanks!
I see lots of old books as an auctioneer, “if” I find one I will contact you, I run into lots of old stuff some of which I doubt anyone knows what is, or was. Lots of old books and pamphlets are around and we don’t know what grandma or grandpa or aunt sadie etc. liked. If the family has not gone through and pitched old adult items they are usually some in each.
Ken Kottke
That would be great. I love those old boxes of ephemeral paper that somebody saved — even when it’s mostly junk, it’s usually interesting junk.