Old Age: Its Cause and Prevention: The Story of an Old Body and Face Made Young
book · 1912
LINK
SUMMARY
Sanford Bennett's 1912 book, the primary statement of his rejuvenation system in his own words (The Physical Culture Publishing Co., New York). Its title-page epigraph frames the doctrine directly: 'All muscles and all organs increase in size, strength and elasticity when properly exercised. This is the principal secret of health, strength, elasticity of body, and a long life.' The book presents thorough self-administered exercise (largely performed lying in bed) and facial self-massage as the cause of his own restored youth, illustrated by dated before-and-after photographs of the author. It is a promotional and autobiographical text, not a controlled study. The four media assets in this case are plates and pages of this book, taken from the Internet Archive scan of the Cornell University Library copy (cu31924031232105); that scan states there are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text, the posture the media rights tags (no_known_restrictions) match, and the 1912 United States imprint is in any case out of copyright in the United States (published before 1929). The plate captions used in the media entities are copied verbatim from the book's own printed legends, which name and date the author's photographs (8 June 1889; 4 January 1912); identification of the subject as Bennett rests on the book's own captions. The Internet Archive catalog record for this scan gives the author's dates as 'Bennett, Sanford, 1841-', which is the documented basis for the practitioner's recorded birth year of 1841; the dated photographs in the book (at fifty on 8 June 1889 and at seventy-two on 4 January 1912) imply a birth year of about 1839, and the case notes both. Bibliographic metadata copied from the Internet Archive catalog record. A separate 1912 trade edition was issued by Dodd, Mead and Company (Wellcome Library copy, IA b28123001).
NOTES
Sanford Bennett’s 1912 book is the primary statement of his rejuvenation doctrine in his own words, published by The Physical Culture Publishing Company in New York. The subtitle, “The Story of an Old Body and Face Made Young,” states the rejuvenation framing directly, and the title-page epigraph names the larger claim: that properly exercising all muscles and organs is “the principal secret of health, strength, elasticity of body, and a long life.” The body of the book sets out his system of muscular-contraction exercises, most of them performed lying in bed, and a program of facial self-massage, presented through the narrative of his own decline and recovery and illustrated by dated before-and-after photographs of himself at fifty (1889) and seventy-two (1912).
The archive cites it as the primary source for Bennett’s claims and as the source of the case’s media. It is a promotional and autobiographical text rather than a controlled study; the evidence it offers is Bennett’s own case and testimony. The media assets are plates and pages of this book taken from the Internet Archive scan of the Cornell University Library copy (cu31924031232105); the scan records that there are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text, the posture the media tags (no_known_restrictions) match, and the 1912 United States imprint is in any case out of copyright in the United States. Bibliographic metadata was copied from the Internet Archive catalog record.