Dale, Mary [pseud. Marjorie Dawson]; Isabella Morton (illus.)

Thoughts for Flirts

New York: Hermann Lechner, 1911.

"Dedicated: to all women in general, and some in particular; to no man in particular, but all in general"

12mo, 104pp. Periwinkle cloth with a pictorial vignette of an eye. Very Good with discoloration to the spine, light general soil that has a vignetting effect. Light intermittent fingersoil. The illustrations by Morton generally have a "Gibson girl" style, but the eye/mouth illustration is clearly divine and the cover, bound in an elusive shade of periwinkle, is bliss.

There was a Marjorie Dawson publishing fairy-themed illustrated books at this time (Perky Pixie's Party, 1910), but it seems unlikely to be the same author. Only a handful of titles could be traced to the publisher, two of which were also written by women under pseudonyms, including The Pegsticks ("Maria Dolman," pseud. Ada Dudney) and Is Your Smile Worth a Fortune? by Florence M. Laflin, which he advertised in 'The Evening Post' as "A book for EVERY woman."

Conversational and entertaining, but with an unknown (and feared inexistent) quotient of satire--see excerpts from "The Wicked Woman Flirt," the "Married Woman Flirt," "Widow Woman Flirt" and a somewhat exasperating passage regarding suffrage and women holding political office in the "Spinster Anti-Flirt" section.

Read literally, in terms of "first wave" feminism, it's a fail (though would be regarded much differently through a modern lens). One of the few records of its existence comes from a review published by American suffragist and journalist Nixola Greeley-Smith with the lead "Flirt Textbook is Ungentle Art." "Like the flirt herself, it is distinctly scatter-brained" and dubbed Dale the "new oracle of the shoddy art."

Lechner selectively quoted the review in his next NYT ad (06-10-11): As the New York World Says: "It will no longer be necessary... [to await] the arrival of Cleo de Merode, now heading for America with a lecture on 'Flirtation,' for the text-book of the flirt has been written." Get the remarkable book alluded to!

Unrecorded in OCLC. A flirt, indeed.