author
Sylvanus Stall
1847–1915
Best remembered for a wildly popular series of moral and sex-education books, this Lutheran pastor wrote for readers at every stage of life, from children to married adults. His work offers a vivid glimpse into the social anxieties and advice literature of turn-of-the-century America.
2 Audiobooks
With the Children on Sundays Through Eye-Gate and Ear-Gate into the City of Child-Soul
by Sylvanus Stall
What a Young Husband Ought to Know
by Sylvanus Stall
About the author
Born in 1847 and dying in 1915, he was an American Lutheran pastor, editor, and prolific author. He served congregations in Maryland, New York, and Pennsylvania, and also worked as editor of The Lutheran Observer and Stall's Lutheran Yearbook and Historical Quarterly.
He is most often remembered today for What a Young Boy Ought to Know (1897), the first in a long-running "ought to know" series that mixed health advice, moral instruction, and sex education. The books reached a wide audience and made him a notable figure in popular religious and educational writing of his era.
Beyond that famous series, he also wrote on hymnody, Christian instruction, and family life. For modern listeners, his books can be interesting both as historical documents and as examples of how pastors and publishers tried to shape everyday behavior in late 19th- and early 20th-century America.