Meeting Report: November 2023

Meeting Report: November 2023

Book: "Madame Restell: The Life, Death, and Resurrection of Old New York’s Most Fabulous, Fearless, and Infamous Abortionist" by Jennifer Wright

In "Madame Restell" we get a look at the controversial life and times of Old New York's most successful abortionist, from her personal journey to the evolving societal attitudes towards abortion. Jennifer Wright weaves together Madame Restell's early life, her rise to prominence, and the tumultuous events leading to her downfall at the hands of the notorious Anthony Comstock.

In our meeting, we discussed the success Madame Restell had performing abortions without any demonstrated loss of life of any of her patients due to infection, an achievement that was quite unusual for the time. We also discussed some of her choices, particularly around apparently sending the child of one of her patients away to some unknown place (I think it was supposed to be Ohio?), with only the direction of the child's father to go on and to the great lifelong distress of that child's mother. The social context of the time was an interesting conundrum: there was an overabundance of orphaned children in New York City and not enough space in the city's orphanages or willing families to take them in. As a result, many children died of neglect. How society was changing from acceptance to condemnation of Restell's work in providing abortions (a view helped along by Comstock, that dick) when the alternative was already too many children (not to mention women) dying doesn't exactly seem more ethical.

Wright also sprinkled in a few humorous interjections in her writing, such as:

“Mill towns […] offered women financial independence […] Many hoped to earn enough money to provide for a relative, pay a brother’s tuition, or save for their own dowry and then return home. Others intended to get a better education, or to buy the things they wanted for themselves-books! pretty dresses!-with their own money. At least one went because she ‘hate[d] her mother in law,’ which seems fair.”

and:

“Surely the thought of inserting […] boiled garlic into one’s vagina is enough to make a modern woman shudder.”

and:

“You could probably make anyone go anywhere with a whip made out of scorpions.”

Though a few of us noted we would have liked even more of these, a) because they're hilarious and b) they helped to break up an otherwise quite serious (and sometimes infuriating) historical account.

We also discussed the Wikipedia page for Madame Restell [this is the permanent link to my revised version as of this post; the live version is here, and hopefully no one changes it...], which at the time of our meeting suggested Restell's death was most likely to have been murder. This came as a surprise to our group, because Wright's book says it was either suicide per the official ruling of the time, or posits that she may have faked her death and fled to Europe (admittedly a more satisfying ending), but says nothing at all about murder, so what gives?? 

Well, I did some digging into the other Restell biographer (Sharon DeBartolo Carmack*), and my official position is her assertion that Restell was murdered is speculative and not substantiated by multiple mainstream sources per Wikipedia's verifiability policy. Unofficially,† she's a quack who believes in Spiritualist mediums and talking to the dead. I'm not spending money to buy her (possibly self-published‡, another reliability red flag) book to find out what evidence she supposedly has for this claim, and barring any corroboration from reliable sources, I say it's bovine feces.

*If she's gonna cite/brazenly self-promote her own book on Wikipedia, calling her out by name is fair play.

†If she comes at me, this blog was hacked by the angry ghost of Madame Restell. PROVE ME WRONG, SHARON. You're the one who says anyone can be a medium, and that's science.

‡Her imprint for her Restell bio, Scattered Leaves Press, belongs to Warren, CARMACK & Associates. Most of the books they've published are written by either Warren or Carmack. I counted.

Rant over...

Average Goodreads rating from our members (who have rated at the time of this writing): 4.67 stars

Stay tuned for the next recap of our annual December holiday party, and the unveiling of the book list for the next Cycle!

P.S. Reminder that our spin-off microhistory book club meets quarterly--next meeting tentatively scheduled for February 23, 2024. The microhistory readers will next be tackling "Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall" by Alexandra Lange. If you want to join us for this or any future books, get in touch with Jessy!