Donald A Wollheim

Let's Go Naked

First published as a Pyramid Books paperback 1952.

This collection of 13 short stories, magazine columns, articles and extracts from novels was compiled by reknowned editor Donald A Wollheim. Unlike the majority of his SF anthologies, this book has neither an overall introduction nor comments or information on the individual elements - although the back cover has some supposedly helpful comments by the publisher:

THE BARE FACTS OF LIFE!

A sophisticated Frenchman visits a nudist camp and meets a very eager blonde . . .

A preacher finds himself locked in a dark closet with a naked girl . . .

Two teen-age sweethearts play at Adam and Eve . . .

• Never was life in the raw served up with such risqué savor as in this titillating treasury of "doin' what comes naturally." It's a delightful combination of fun and sex by modern masters of spicy literature.

Those who trust in blurbs would have been disappointed by the limited amount of sex, and by the distinctly unspicy and untitillating nature of much of the contents. It seems the blurb-writer was lazy as usual, and only dipped into tales 1, 2 and 4 of the collection before sensationalising their plot and representing this as typical of the whole volume. On the other hand the illustrations are rather nice, even if they also have little to do with the text inside.

The notes below list the stories in the order they occur in the book, and provide details only where the item is not covered elsewhere in these pages.

1. Let's Go Naked by Louis-Charles Royer

   A translation from a French original - the text reads awkwardly in places, as if someone is rendering a foreign sentence structure literally. The author spends time in the company of a young German woman, at both naturist and textile locations in and near Berlin. He finds the latter encounters to be erotic and stimulating, the former to be entirely unexciting and devoid of sexual overtones. Copyright given as "1932 by Brentano's, reprinted by permission of Greenberg: Publisher." This must be an extract from Royer's book, also titled Let's Go Naked, first published in America in 1932, which is itself a translation of Royer's non-fictional account of the (then brief) history of French naturism, Au Pays Des Hommes Nus, first published in 1929. Royer's other work appears to have been primarily erotic fiction.

2. Over The Green Mountains by Erskine Caldwell

3. The Undraped Model by Earl Wilson - note that Wollheim changes the title from Wilson's Nudity

4. American Nocturne by Robert Whitehead

   A short story about a young couple sharing a last evening together in the countryside before heading off for different education and training locations after high school. They strip naked as a gesture of mutual trust and to seal their committment to one another. Copyright given as 1936 by State University of Iowa.

5. Love Cult In The Timber by Stewart H Holbrook

   An article about the Holy Roller cult which flourished briefly in Oregon at the start of the 20th century. The leader, Joshua (aka Franz Edmund) Creffield and his (exclusively female) followers would strip and roll around on the ground, followed by sex. Copyright 1937 by The American Mercury, Inc.

6. Barefooted . . . Up To Her Chin by H Allen Smith

   A columnist similar in some respects to Earl Wilson, H Allen Smith offers his views on strippers and exotic dancers. From the 1941 collection Low Man On A Totem Pole. Copyright "1941 by H Allen Smith, reprinted by permission of Doubleday and Company, Inc."

7. Boy In The Birches by Mary Brinker Post

   A young lad strolls off through the woods and enjoys a naked gambol in a field. A couple see him, but aren't concerned, and recommend a swim in the lake. Copyright given as "1934 by Story Magazine, Inc, reprinted by permission of Story Magazine, Inc."

8. Josephine In The Flesh by Thorne Smith. Chapter Seventeen, "Reactions and routine", of The Bishop's Jaegers. Note, once again, Wollheim's retitling at work.

9. The Revelation by H E Bates

10. Exposure by Eric Frank Russell

11. Among The Nudists by Meyer Levin

    Taken from Levin's autobiography In Search, this tells of the time in the late 1930s that the author spent living in a naturist camp with his wife. Although things went well at first, the Levins became subject to prejudice. This problem evolved and expanded into a major issue within the camp, exacerbated by petty officialdom and club politics. Perhaps club naturism hasn't moved on very far in the intervening years? Note that I have not included Levin in the author index.

    Here's a sample:

    ... in seeking a countryside place where I might work on my book, we found a nudist colony listed about fifty miles from Chicago, on a little lake near Valparaiso. For my half-weeks of writing, the location was ideal, as I could get there in an hour. We drove out one weekend for a test visit. There was a gemlike lake, surrounded by woods. An old farmhouse, a pingpong shed, and a few tents clustered on one side of the lake. On the other side, I could built [sic] a shack and work in isolation. On Saturday evening, we were introduced to the circle of nudists. There were about twenty, seated around a campfire. Our first reaction, a typical conformity impulse, was a sense of embarrassment at being dressed. So we stepped aside, conformed, and joined, the circle. There is a tittering question that arises at once, in any discussion of nudism; the answer is no, there is no sexual embarrassment for the male. In two years at this club, I never saw such a situation, although there were always, among the frightful, at least a few attractive women in sight. The social frame, of course, acts as an inhibitor. The weekend was pleasant enough. The people seemed average city folk; there was a young man gym teacher, an advertising man, a printer with his family. The members didn't seem cranks on the nudist subject; some wore bits of clothing for convenience, going nude only for swimming, sunbathing, and volleyball. There were swarms of children who were beautiful to watch, and once for a few weeks there was a visiting couple from whom we could not take our eyes: the woman looked exactly like a Cranach Eve, a newly formed creature, womanly woman, moving with liquid ease through the green foliage, providing, in herself, aesthetic justification for an entire nudist movement.

     

12. Naked Lady by Mindret Lord

    A tale of art and passion, involving non-sexual nudity but not social nudity. Copyright given as "1934 by Popular Fiction Publishing Co, Inc. By permission of the author." Mildred Loeb Lord wrote as both Mindret Lord and Garland Lord. This story has also been published in Weird Tales (September 1934 issue), The Other Worlds (ed Phillip D Stong, 1941) and The Devil's Kisses (ed Linda Lovecraft, 1976)

13. The Baltic Night by Paul Morand

    Translation from the French of a chapter in Ouvert La Nuite, a novel by Paul Morand first published in 1921. Morand was a distinguished man of letters and minor statesman in France, who fell from grace due to taking a significant role in the Vichy regime.

    The author titled this chapter La Nuit Nordique - yet another Wollheim re-titling. The un-named French narrator is in a town of north-eastern Europe, where he applies for temporary membership of a nudist club espousing "aesthetics and hygiene, to say nothing of eugenics" and requiring all members to be Aryans. Although it is summer, the club meets indoors for socialising and a wide range of exercise. The scene described has strong similarities with that in Wallace's The Prize. The narrator is besotted with a beautiful young woman, and later goes off into the country with her for the midsummer festival. As with the Royer item, I suspect the translation is clumsy in places.

Ratings: - for the book as a whole.

Nudity	Naturist nudity	A good read?

Last updated 2005 January 14.
 
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