Suppressed — Dr. Albert Ellis

Full Title: Suppressed: 7 Key Essays Publishers Dared Not Print
Dr. Albert Ellis
New Classics House · Chicago · 1965
First Edition · First Printing

The Book:
The First Edition · First Printing of Albert Ellis’s Suppressed, collecting seven essays presented as works other publishers had declined to print. Their subjects include sexual morality, homosexuality, masturbation, atheism, incest, psychology, and other questions capable of colliding with the social and religious orthodoxies of mid-century America. Ellis responded to rejection by making rejection itself the subject of the book: the title became Suppressed, the cover announced “7 Key Essays Publishers Dared Not Print,” and New Classics House issued the material as an inexpensive original paperback. 124 pp. Original New Classics House wrappers, publication number N173, and original 75¢ price retained.

Condition:
Very Good+. Original wrappers remain complete and firmly attached, with scattered spotting to the predominantly white front wrapper, light rubbing, minor handling and extremity wear, and pronounced but uniform toning to the text stock. Spine remains straight and fully legible; binding is tight. Interior is otherwise notably clean and unmarked. No significant ownership markings, rebinding, restoration, or replacement components documented.

Story Of The Book

Albert Ellis refused to let editorial rejection be the end of an argument.

By 1965, Ellis was already a prominent and deliberately provocative psychologist and sexologist, challenging conventional ideas about sexuality, religion, guilt, and morality.

In Suppressed, he gathered seven essays that, according to the book’s own premise, publishers had refused to print. The subjects were exactly the kind likely to make mid-century editors nervous: homosexuality, masturbation, incest, atheism, sexual morality, and psychological convention.

Ellis did not hide the rejection. He put it on the cover.

The book was called Suppressed. Its subtitle promised “7 Key Essays Publishers Dared Not Print.” An inexpensive 75¢ paperback became the vehicle through which ideas excluded elsewhere were deliberately returned to circulation.

The publishers who rejected the essays became part of the story—and the existence of the book became Ellis’s answer to them.

Why It’s In The Collection

Suppressed belongs in Consigned to Darkness because censorship does not always come from courts, police, or governments. Sometimes it begins with an editor deciding that an idea is too controversial to print.

There is no evidence that the state banned these essays. That distinction matters. What this book documents instead is private gatekeeping—and one author’s decision to route around it. Ellis gathered the rejected work, made its rejection visible, and published it anyway.

That makes the first edition especially meaningful as a publication-event object: it preserves not merely seven controversial essays, but the moment exclusion itself was transformed into a publishing strategy.

The essays were supposed to disappear in rejection. Ellis printed the rejection instead.

Collection Categories: Publication-Event Object · Free Expression · Censorship · Sexuality & Culture · Anti-Authoritarianism · Religion & Free Thought · Psychology · Religious Conscience

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Authentication Evidence

• Title page identifies the work as Suppressed by Dr. Albert Ellis.

• Title page carries the subtitle “7 Key Essays Publishers Dared Not Print.”

• Title page identifies the volume as a New Classics House Original.

• Original 75¢ price is present.

• Spine identifies Dr. Albert Ellis, Suppressed, and New Classics House publication number N173.

• Copyright statement reads “Copyright: 1965 New Classics House, a division of Novel Books, Inc., 2715 N. Pulaski Rd., Chicago 39, Illinois.”

• Copyright statement confirms that the volume was printed and bound in the United States.

• The Albert Ellis Institute’s bibliography independently records Suppressed: Seven key essays publishers dare not print as Chicago: New Classics House, 1965.

• Contemporary Journal of Sex Research evidence identifies the original publication as New Classics House, Chicago, 1965; 124 pages; paperback; 75¢, matching this copy’s publisher, year, pagination, format, and original price.

• Independent library records identify the 1965 New Classics House publication as a softcover edition, supporting the paperback as the original publication format rather than a later paperback reissue.

• No evidence of an earlier hardcover, cloth issue, or preceding edition has been identified.

• Publisher advertising within the volume describes Suppressed as “the 5th New Classics House Original,” corroborating its position within the publisher’s original-paperback program.

• Publisher advertising elsewhere in the volume distinguishes first and subsequent printings of other New Classics House titles, demonstrating that the publisher recognized separate impressions within the same program.

• No alternative 1965 Suppressed printing, earlier wrapper state, different original price, or intervening impression preceding N173 has been identified.

• No later-printing indicators are present.

• Although the volume does not explicitly state “First Printing,” the original-paperback designation, contemporary bibliographic evidence, wrapper state, price, publication number, and absence of any earlier or intervening impression together support First Printing identification with very high confidence.

• Original New Classics House wrappers remain present.

• Physical collation comprises 124 numbered pages.

• No evidence of facsimile manufacture, replacement wrappers, rebinding, or restoration is observed.

• Observable physical and bibliographic evidence supports identification as the 1965 First Edition · First Printing.