Is Sex Necessary?

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Odissi Indian classical female dancer on white background. (Indian dancer; classical dancer; Indian dance)

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Lusitania sinking, illustration from The War of the Nations (New York), December 31, 1919. World War I, WWI. This image is one of three on the page. (See source file for the other two.)

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Mona Lisa, oil on wood panel by Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1503-06; in the Louvre, Paris, France. 77 x 53 cm.

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Is Sex Necessary?

work by White and Thurber

Learn about this topic in these articles:

contribution by White

In E.B. White
collaborated with James Thurber on Is Sex Necessary? (1929), a spoof of contemporary sex manuals. In a monthly column (1938–43) for Harper’s magazine, he wrote essays about rural life.
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discussed in biography

In James Thurber
…illustrations for their jointly written Is Sex Necessary? (1929), a spoof on the then-popular earnest, pseudoscientific approach to sex. Thurber’s stock characters—the snarling wife, her timid, hapless husband, and a roster of serene, silently observing animals—have become classics of urban mythology.
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