Gershon Legman (1917–1999)
Author of The Limerick
About the Author
Image credit: photo from The Union Recorder, 1970
Series
Works by Gershon Legman
Rationale of the Dirty Joke: An Analysis of Sexual Humor, First Series {complete} (1969) 122 copies, 1 review
Rationale of the Dirty Joke: An Analysis of Sexual Humour, First Series {Volume 1} (1972) 18 copies, 1 review
Folklore Erótico 1 copy
Neurotica, Vol. 1, No. 2 1 copy
Associated Works
The Encyclopedia of Erotic Literature [3-volume set] (1885) — Introduction, some editions — 27 copies
American Aphrodite: A Quarterly for the Fancy-Free (Volume 3, Number 9) (2013) — Contributor — 2 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Legman, G.
- Legal name
- Legman, Gershon
- Other names
- Legman, George
de la Glannège, Roger-Maxe - Birthdate
- 1917-11-02
- Date of death
- 1999-02-23
- Gender
- male
- Education
- University of Michigan
- Occupations
- folklorist
humorist
cultural critic - Organizations
- University of California, San Diego (writer in residence, 1964-1965)
- Short biography
- Gershon Legman (1917-1999) was an American cultural critic and folklorist, best known for his books The Rationale of the Dirty Joke (1968) and The Horn Book: Studies in Erotic Folklore and Bibliography (1964).
Born in 1917 in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Legman was the son of Emil and Julia Friedman Legman, both of Hungarian-Jewish descent. He was educated at Scranton's Central High School, where journalist Jane Jacobs and screenwriter and film director Cy Endfield were classmates. He enrolled in the University of Michigan for one semester in the fall of 1935, but left without sitting for his exams. He then settled in New York City where for a number of years he was a part-time freelance assistant to the physician and sexological researcher Robert Latou Dickinson at the New York Academy of Medicine while simultaneously working in the bookshop of Jacob Brussel, where a brisk business was done in publishing and selling contraband erotica. He also spent long hours at the New York Public Library acquiring an autodidactic education. In the late 1940s he became the editor of the little magazine Neurotica.
Throughout his career Legman was an independent scholar without institutional affiliation, except for one year during 1964-1965 when he was a writer in residence at the University of California, San Diego, in the first year of the new campus' undergraduate programs. He pioneered the serious academic study of erotic and taboo materials in folklore.
(source: Wikipedia) - Cause of death
- complications of a stroke
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA
- Places of residence
- Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA
La Jolla, California, USA
La Clé des Champs, Valbonne, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azûr, France - Place of death
- Opio, Bar-sur-Loup, Alpes-Maritimes, France
- Associated Place (for map)
- USA
Members
Reviews
What a vile, depraved, offensive, WONDERFUL volume. Gershon Legman was a fascinating and eccentric individual of the 20th century, obsessed with sex but also determined to bring America out of its needlessly repressed ways. (And also apparently a key contributor in bringing the origami fad to the Western world... Go figure.) This book was famously published in France rather than the US when Legman couldn't find a publisher, and because of this, he found himself without any copyright over the show more volume.
There are many variations on this publication, as a result, but my Panther edition collects 1700 limericks in two volumes. The first volume includes a decent introductory essay on the history of the poetic form, and the second volume contains a short "rhyming dictionary" at the end. Both volumes give extensive (and often dirty) notes on the limericks.
Every possible topic is covered - from incest and coprophilia to necrophilia and prostitution. If you're in any way offended by things, this may not be for you, and truthfully I hope no-one is completely comfortable with all 1700 poems herein! But the importance of Legman's work was just as much to challenge our assumptions, to make us - and particularly Americans - aware that their society's repression wasn't necessarily natural, that the "dirtiness" of 5-line poems was a completely legitimate way of enjoying oneself. Most interestingly in his inroduction, Legman comments that limericks are much more popular amongst the highly-educated. He suggests that the ornate fringes of the poetry, the inter-rhymes, the deceptively innocent opening lines, they all attract people more subtly attuned to the nuances of the joke, while the slight pretention makes them less attractive to people for whom dirty jokes alone are attractive. I think there's also the fact that, because limericks can be so depraved, they require a mind who can enjoy the joke without necessarily endorsing the sentiment in real life. If this cheeky volume is evidence, it's well worth it. show less
There are many variations on this publication, as a result, but my Panther edition collects 1700 limericks in two volumes. The first volume includes a decent introductory essay on the history of the poetic form, and the second volume contains a short "rhyming dictionary" at the end. Both volumes give extensive (and often dirty) notes on the limericks.
Every possible topic is covered - from incest and coprophilia to necrophilia and prostitution. If you're in any way offended by things, this may not be for you, and truthfully I hope no-one is completely comfortable with all 1700 poems herein! But the importance of Legman's work was just as much to challenge our assumptions, to make us - and particularly Americans - aware that their society's repression wasn't necessarily natural, that the "dirtiness" of 5-line poems was a completely legitimate way of enjoying oneself. Most interestingly in his inroduction, Legman comments that limericks are much more popular amongst the highly-educated. He suggests that the ornate fringes of the poetry, the inter-rhymes, the deceptively innocent opening lines, they all attract people more subtly attuned to the nuances of the joke, while the slight pretention makes them less attractive to people for whom dirty jokes alone are attractive. I think there's also the fact that, because limericks can be so depraved, they require a mind who can enjoy the joke without necessarily endorsing the sentiment in real life. If this cheeky volume is evidence, it's well worth it. show less
This was frankly a bit of a slog, more so than the first volume, possibly due to sheer quantity.
In the introduction to his version of the song ‘Clementine’, Tom Lehrer posits that ‘the reason most folk songs are so atrocious is that they were written by the people’, and I suspect much the same applies to limericks. While there are a few gems where the writing shines and you actually laugh out loud, they are swamped by a lot of dross.
The problem is not that the limericks are crude show more – many would argue that that’s entirely the point of limericks – but rather that so many of them are only crude: if the use of a taboo word or the description of a taboo practice is in itself enough to tickle your ribs, then you’re in luck, but a reader of any sophistication might hope and expect to get actual humour: jokes and linguistic play to give the verses some heft. And that’s the extra layer that professional wordsmiths can add to comic verse: they first have an ear for the meter, knowing whether the rhythm works and having the skill to rework a line that doesn’t until it does. Then they also have a sense of comic timing, knowing which line(s) to put the set-up in and where to deliver the punchline for best effect.
I think taboo language is like seasoning: it can add piquancy to a bland meal if applied by someone with the necessary experience, but it carries little nutrition and you wouldn’t want to eat it on its own. show less
In the introduction to his version of the song ‘Clementine’, Tom Lehrer posits that ‘the reason most folk songs are so atrocious is that they were written by the people’, and I suspect much the same applies to limericks. While there are a few gems where the writing shines and you actually laugh out loud, they are swamped by a lot of dross.
The problem is not that the limericks are crude show more – many would argue that that’s entirely the point of limericks – but rather that so many of them are only crude: if the use of a taboo word or the description of a taboo practice is in itself enough to tickle your ribs, then you’re in luck, but a reader of any sophistication might hope and expect to get actual humour: jokes and linguistic play to give the verses some heft. And that’s the extra layer that professional wordsmiths can add to comic verse: they first have an ear for the meter, knowing whether the rhythm works and having the skill to rework a line that doesn’t until it does. Then they also have a sense of comic timing, knowing which line(s) to put the set-up in and where to deliver the punchline for best effect.
I think taboo language is like seasoning: it can add piquancy to a bland meal if applied by someone with the necessary experience, but it carries little nutrition and you wouldn’t want to eat it on its own. show less
This little book is mostly a polemic, and history only by courtesy. The erudite Legman was assiduous in the things which concerned him, a spirited writer at all times -- I still treasure letters from him -- but Hell on wheels to those he disliked, no matter how reasonable or unreasonable his feelings. He loathed gays, and starting from the assumption that the Knights Templars did indeed pactice man-on-man love extensively, he marshalled whatever evidence he could in support of that show more contention, thus putting himself, curiously, on the side of one of one of the most vicious, cynical, and self-serving European monarchs of his day, the kind of person he would have despised in any other situation than this, where the sexual card trumped eveything else. It's not particulalry relevant, but intriguing to note that toward the end of his life he lived in a ruined Templar castle in the South of France. show less
I guess that this is the definitive book on limericks. Why you would ever need such a book is a mystery, however, but, for some reason, I just had to get it. The introduction is scattershot and disjointed. Of course, it is also what you'd expect from a folklorist who collects limericks. There is some history in the intro, but since it is written so oddly, it is hard to really get the point. Still, the tidbits thrown out are good enough to let the weirdness slide. But what makes this book show more awesome to me is that it is annotated, numbered, and cited; there is an index and a rhyming index. This delights my bibliographic soul.
The limericks? Well, of course they are ribald and bawdy and raunchy. And sometimes disgustingly so. But, at least I now own the definitive book on limericks. show less
The limericks? Well, of course they are ribald and bawdy and raunchy. And sometimes disgustingly so. But, at least I now own the definitive book on limericks. show less
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Statistics
- Works
- 28
- Also by
- 10
- Members
- 1,124
- Popularity
- #22,856
- Rating
- 3.7
- Reviews
- 18
- ISBNs
- 35
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- 1