GUY RAZ, host:
Welcome back to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Guy Raz.
One February afternoon in 1902, a woman named Ida Craddock was about to be arrested. She was what you might call today a sexologist. But in 1902, many people considered her how-to guides on sex to be filth. And so that cold February day, four officials with a search warrant knocked on Craddock's front door on West 23rd Street in New York City.
Leading the way was Anthony Comstock, the powerful head of New York Society for the Suppression of Vice.
Mr. LEIGH ERIC SCHMIDT (Author, "Heaven's Bride: The Unprintable Life of Ida C. Craddock"): (Reading) Craddock well knew that Comstock and his three deputies had come to her apartment to take her into custody. But as Craddock stood waiting for Comstock to finish inspecting her belongings, she heard the great "apostle of purity," as she wryly called him, whistling a tune with a particularly composed and calm air. The federally appointed protector of innocent youth was humming the music of "the Koochy-Koochy Dance," a notorious form of belly dancing only recently introduced to American audiences and one that had quickly become a byword for sensually charged dancing, the Hootchy-Cootchy or Danse Du Ventre.
RAZ: That's Harvard Professor Leigh Eric Schmidt reading from his new book. It's called "Heaven's Bride," and it tells the story of Ida C. Craddock, a turn of the century mystic, scholar, sex therapist and ultimately civil liberties martyr. Leigh Eric Schmidt is at member station KMOX in St. Louis.
Welcome to the program.
Mr. SCHMIDT: Thanks for having me on.
RAZ: So we just heard about 1902, which was the last time Ida Craddock was arrested before her death, which we'll get to later. But talk a little about the year 1893 and the Chicago World's Fair, because that was really the start of Ida Craddock's journey into becoming this icon for sexual liberation.
Mr. SCHMIDT: The Chicago World's Fair was a huge event in 1893. Millions and millions of Americans went there as tourists to see everything that was on display. And certainly, the one that got the most media attention at the time was what was going on in the Egyptian theater, and that was this belly dancing show.
And many people were scandalized by it and they thought, well, is there any way we can shut this thing down? I mean, this is a horrible orgy. All this filth from the Orient is pouring into America. Let's try to shut this down. So they necessarily said, let's get Anthony Comstock to come in. He's the most powerful vice crusader of the day. Let's get him to come in.
And sure enough, he decides it's debauched and wants to close it down. And at that point, Ida Craddock publishes a defense of belly dancing and a defense of the shows that are going on in the Egyptian theater. That puts her on the radar screen as a kind of eccentric sex reformer in her day. So that's how Craddock enters into this initial fray with Comstock.
RAZ: I want to ask you about Anthony Comstock in a moment. But how does Craddock go from defending belly dancing in 1893 to becoming this voice for sexual liberation, this person who writes how-to guides, sex guides, for married couples?
Mr. SCHMIDT: It's a circuitous path, that's for sure. I mean, one of the things that really is leading her into this is that she's been doing a lot of reading in folklore and comparative religions and comparative mythology. And she thinks she's discovered that ancient religions were originally much more open to sex. And that has made her interested in this possibility of somehow recovering that world.
And then belly dancing becomes this catalyst for her to decide, hey, this is the reform work I really want to do, and she starts putting together these little how-to guides.
RAZ: She was arrested a number of times, and her main nemesis, who we've mentioned, is Anthony Comstock. He was the head of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice. It sounds like something out of Saudi Arabia or Iran. It's amazing that there was such a group in America, but this is Victorian America. How did he become so powerful?
Mr. SCHMIDT: Right. Comstock really wants a badge, and he lobbies Congress in the early 1870s to create an anti-obscenity law.
RAZ: This is a law that becomes known as the Comstock Act.
Mr. SCHMIDT: Exactly. This is a law that's basically named for him, the Comstock Act or the Comstock Law.
RAZ: A law that he - and he can effectively judge what is indecent and what is not.
Mr. SCHMIDT: Right. So Comstock has that going for him. He has an incredible success rate by the time he's really taking on Craddock in 1902. He's had 2,000-plus convictions. He doesn't lose that many cases.
RAZ: In 1902, he shows up at Ida Craddock's apartment in New York City with three other officials. They have a warrant to search the property, and they arrest her. What happens after that?
Mr. SCHMIDT: Well, they arrest her there in February. And he's able to quickly bring charges against her at two levels. He's able to get her on a state anti-obscenity law, and he's also able to indict her in federal court. So in a sense, what he has her is in double legal jeopardy.
RAZ: And that's because she used the postal service to mail these pamphlets.
Mr. SCHMIDT: Right. Absolutely. The federal charge is based on her putting obscene materials in the mail in violation of the Comstock Act. The state trial comes up first. And it becomes clear pretty quickly that, you know, Comstock has her in a court that's highly favorable to his view, and she loses the case and is put in jail for three months at that point.
She gets out of jail in June 1902. At this point, she's become something of a civil liberties hero.
RAZ: So she starts to test Comstock at this point, right?
Mr. SCHMIDT: Right. I mean, now, people are picking up this story. I mean, here is someone who's claiming her right to freedom of expression, freedom of speech and Comstock has thrown her in jail. But Comstock still has the federal trial and that is, you know, set for a few months later.
And again, she's a repeat offender at this point. She's really fearful that if she's found guilty, she's going to get the maximum sentence here. She'd get five years imprisonment, perhaps a hefty fine. And so she really sees all the chips being on the table in that last trial.
RAZ: So she decides that she is not going to show up for the sentencing. And what happens that day?
Mr. SCHMIDT: She has decided that the deck is stacked against her. And so the night before the sentencing, she writes two notes: one to her mother and one to Anthony Comstock. She then methodically goes about sealing up her room and turns on the gas and is then found dead the next morning by her mother. She felt like the only option at that point was suicide, that that was the only way she was going to die a free woman.
RAZ: When you consider her legacy, where would you place her? I mean, would you place her alongside Alfred Kinsey and Susan B. Anthony and Gloria Steinem?
Mr. SCHMIDT: I would place her alongside Alfred Kinsey in a certain way. I mean, she certainly pushes this conversation about sex education, sexual enlightenment as being an important form of expression. She certainly has affinities with a figure like Susan B. Anthony. She is a feminist. You know, she's also, though, an eccentric, and in all kinds of ways, just crosses up our categories.
I mean - and there's something about Craddock that's just lost in translation as time wears on.
RAZ: That's Leigh Eric Schmidt. He teaches religious history at Harvard. His new book is called "Heaven's Bride: The Unprintable Life of Ida C. Craddock."
Leigh Eric Schmidt, thank you.
Mr. SCHMIDT: Thank you.