Sylvanus Stall (18 October 1847 – 6 November 1915) "Stall, Sylvanus" (Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1900) was a

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...

pastor A pastor (abbreviated as "Pr" or "Ptr" , or "Ps" ) is the leader of a Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutheranism, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and ...

, most famous for his 1897 sex education and anti- masturbation book ''What A Young Boy Ought To Know'' and its many sequels. Stall was born in

Elizaville, New York Elizaville (also Ellersie, Union Corners) is a hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest pla ...

(now part of Gallatin). In 1866 he entered

Hartwick Seminary Hartwick College is a private liberal arts college in Oneonta, New York. The institution's origin is rooted in the founding of Hartwick Seminary in 1797 through the will of John Christopher Hartwick. In 1927, the Seminary moved to expand into a ...

, then

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a public state-related land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvania. Founded in 1855 as the Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania, Penn State becam ...

and the Union Theological Seminary in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

. He was ordained a minister in 1874. Stall held a

Doctor of Divinity A Doctor of Divinity (D.D. or DDiv; la, Doctor Divinitatis) is the holder of an advanced academic degree in divinity. In the United Kingdom, it is considered an advanced doctoral degree. At the University of Oxford, doctors of divinity are ra ...

degree. He was initially a pastor in Cobleskill, New York (1874–77),

Martins Creek, Pennsylvania Martins Creek is a census-designated place in Lower Mt. Bethel Township, Pennsylvania. It is located along Martins Creek. Its population was 664 as of the 2020 U.S. census. Martins Creek is part of the Lehigh Valley metropolitan area, which h ...

(1877–80) and

Lancaster, Pennsylvania Lancaster, ( ; pdc, Lengeschder) is a city in and the county seat of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. It is one of the oldest inland cities in the United States. With a population at the 2020 census of 58,039, it ranks 11th in population among ...

(1880–87) (including running a Sunday School attended by H. L. Mencken), but quit in 1887 to edit a church newspaper, ''The Lutheran Observer,'' and start writing books. H. L. Mencken. "First steps in divinity." ''

Happy Days, 1880–1892 ''Happy Days, 1880–1892'' (1940) is the first of an autobiographical trilogy by H.L. Mencken, covering his days as a child in Baltimore, Maryland from birth through age twelve. It was followed by ''Newspaper Days, 1899–1906'' (1941) and '' ...

'', pp. 185-188. Knopf, 1936. He also produced ''Stall's Lutheran Year-Book'' from 1884 on. He was also statistical secretary of the Lutheran General Synod from 1885. After several small-selling books, he released the enormously popular ''What A Young Boy Ought To Know'', a book on sexual hygiene, warning young boys of the purported dangers of masturbation. The book was a transcript of a series of sermons Stall recorded on Edison wax

phonograph cylinder Phonograph cylinders are the earliest commercial medium for recording and reproducing sound. Commonly known simply as "records" in their era of greatest popularity (c. 1896–1916), these hollow cylindrical objects have an audio recording engr ...

s, so is divided into "cylinders" rather than chapters. A cylinder collection was also offered for sale; Loompanics described this as possibly being the first

audiobook An audiobook (or a talking book) is a recording of a book or other work being read out loud. A reading of the complete text is described as "unabridged", while readings of shorter versions are abridgements. Spoken audio has been available in sch ...

. He died in Atlantic City on 6 November 1915, aged 68.

Bibliography

* Pastor's Record (1876) * Hand-Book to Lutheran Hymns (1879) * How to pay church debts, and how to keep churches out of debt (I. K. Funk, 1881) * Methods of church work: religious, social and financial (Funk & Wagnalls, 1888) * Five minute object sermons to children: ... through eye-gate and ear-gate into the city of child-soul (Funk & Wagnalls, 1894) * Bible selections for daily devotion; 365 readings (Funk & Wagnalls, 1896) * What a Young Boy Ought to Know (Vir, 1897) * What a Young Husband Ought to Know (Vir, 1899) * What a Man of Forty-five Ought to Know (Vir, 1901) * What a Young Man Ought to Know (Vir, 1904) * The Social Peril (Vir, 1905) * Successful selling of the Self & Sex series (Vir, 1907) * Talks to the King's children: being the second series of "Object Sermons to Children" (Vir, 1907) * With the children on Sundays, through eye-gate and ear-gate into the city of child-soul (Uplift, 1911) ''With Dr.

Mary Wood-Allen Mary Augusta Wood-Allen (October 19, 1841 – January 21, 1908) was an American doctor, social reformer, lecturer, and writer of books on health and self-improvement for women and children. Through her lectures and writings she was a voice fo ...

:'' * What a young girl ought to know (1897)What a young girl ought to know: Wood-Allen, Mary, 1841-1908
(Internet Archive)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Stall, Sylvanus 19th-century American Lutheran clergy Lutheran writers Writers from New York (state) People from Columbia County, New York 1847 births 1915 deaths American sex educators Pennsylvania State University alumni Union Theological Seminary (New York City) alumni People from Cobleskill, New York