Hardcover Trade Edition
8.5 x 10.5 inches.
256 pages.
185 images.
ISBN: 0910672407
List Price: $40.00
Domestic Shipping: $4.00

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For international orders,
please contact:
eileen [at] winterhouse.com

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This book accompanies an exhibition on medical quackery at the Grolier Club in New York City, tracing its prevalence from the itinerant seller of nostrums four centuries ago to unsolicited spam on the Internet today. Prints by William Hogarth, Honoré Daumier and others highlight the theatrics of the quack at work; posters by Jules Chéret, Maxwell Parrish and their contemporaries illustrate the artistry with which proprietary medicines were once advertised; and works by H.G. Wells, Weir Mitchell and other writers offer a delightful look at the elaborate language used to peddle the quack’s wares.

William H. Helfand is the author of five books including Pharmacy: An Illustrated History (Abrams, 1990), and The Picture of Health, (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991).

This book was designed at the Winterhouse Studio, Falls Village, Connecticut, by William Drenttel and Kevin Smith. The typefaces used are Vendetta, designed by John Downer and Ziggurat, designed by Jonathan Hoefler.

A Winterhouse Edition. Published by The Grolier Club.

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The existence of quacks helped to legitamise the medical profession and, as William Helfand notes, act as an impetus for "demands of greater transparency, therapeutic rationality, and ultimately, controls" in medicine.
The Lancet, October 26, 2002

Not up to par? Allow me to prescribe an immediate visit to this marvelous show devoted to all that is bogus in the world of medicine.
The Wall Street Journal, September 2002

Quack, Quack, Quack showcases the often flamboyant sellers of nostrums andpatent medicines over the course of four centuries, through visual, often entertaining material. William Helfand brings both scholarship and a senseof humor to this exhibition.
Pharmacy in History, Volume 44:2 2002

William Helfand correctly notes that the promotion of bogus health-related products has never ceased and in our own time it has found perhaps the most potent vehicle ever invented — the internet.
Antiques, October 2002

William Helfand’s beautiful and captivating show at The Grolier Club makes it clear that ours is not the only generation of Americans to be preyed on, or fall for, the promise of the miracle cure. Quack, Quack, Quack is a fascinating whirlwind tour through medical, advertising, and popular culture history in the U.S. seen through the prism of printed texts, illustration and ephemera.
Americana Exchange.com, October 2002

A visual tale that weaves vintage visuals with text descriptions ... a book inspired by 19th century broadsides.
STEP inside design, March/April 2003

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desk [at] winterhouse.com