In January of 1832, a 64-page book entitled Fruits of Philosophy, or the private companion of young married people, was published in New York. Credited to “a physician” and only 3 inches by 2 ½ inches, it would become of the most important American birth-control books of its era. The epigraph on the title page was, “Knowledge is wealth. – Old saying.” The book’s author, a country doctor from Western Massachusetts, was the rst person to be imprisoned for birth-control writing on any continent. Decades after he died, his book would be credited with the reversal of population
growth in England and the popularization of contraception in the United States.
His name was Charles Knowlton.
