Sex (book)
Sex is a 1992 coffee table book written by American singer Madonna, with photography by Steven Meisel Studio and Fabien Baron. It was edited by Glenn O'Brien and published by Warner Books, Maverick and Callaway. The book features adult content including softcore pornography and simulations of sexual acts including sadomasochism.
Author
United States
October 21, 1992
Print (hardback)
779/.28
ML420.M1387
Madonna developed Sex after Judith Regan of Simon & Schuster publishers suggested a book of erotic photographs. She wrote it as a character named "Mistress Dita", inspired by 1930s film actress Dita Parlo. It was influenced by punk rock and fashion figures including Guy Bourdin, Helmut Newton and Robert Mapplethorpe. The photos were shot in early 1992 in New York City and Miami, in locations including hotels, burlesque theaters, and city streets. The book includes cameos by actress Isabella Rossellini, rappers Big Daddy Kane and Vanilla Ice, model Naomi Campbell, gay porn star Joey Stefano, actor Udo Kier, and socialite Princess Tatiana von Fürstenberg. The cover is made of aluminium, spiral bound and wrapped in a Mylar sheet.
Madonna's publishers were apprehensive about the release and the book's commercial potential. It was released on October 21, 1992, the day after Madonna's fifth studio album Erotica. A CD single was also packaged with the book which contained the song "Erotic", a song similar in composition to her similarly-named single "Erotica". It sold over 150,000 copies on its first day in the United States, and topped the New York Times Best Seller list for three weeks. In matters of days, Sex went on to sell more than 1.5 million copies worldwide and remains the best and fastest-selling coffee table book. It also remains as one of the most in-demand out-of-print publications of all time.
Sex attracted extensive media attention and backlash, but Madonna remained unapologetic. Though it initially received negative reviews from fans and critics, who felt she had "gone too far", later reviews have been more positive, with academics deeming it a defining phase in Madonna's career. Sex is noted for its social and cultural impact and is considered a bold post-feminist work.
Commercial reception[edit]
Pre-release[edit]
With Sex, Madonna broke several worldwide records. The retail price of the book was $50 in the United States, or around $109 in 2023 dollars.[39][44][62] Across Europe, Sex was sold for £25 in the United Kingdom,[63] and for pta 7500 in Spain (an equivalent of $70 at the time or $152 in 2023).[39][64] The most expensive sales were found in Argentina with a retail price of $89, which is about $193 in 2023 dollars.[39][65]
The initial print run for the first edition was one million copies in five continents and in five languages.[52] It set the record for the largest first printing of an illustrated book in publishing history.[19][17][66] Callaway pointed out the book was an "unprecedented hit", because the print run of an average art book ranges between 5,000 and 10,000 units.[17] Hundreds of copies of the book were pre-ordered, prompting book sellers to say that Sex was "shattering their sales records for advance purchases".[67] John Robinson from Santa Cruz Sentinel informed that many booksellers agreed that "Sex sold, like nothing else before" and "they've never seen anything like it, especially for a $50 book".[68] In Canada, H.B. Fenn and Company, distributors of Sex, reported an order for more than 45,000 copies from bookstores across the country by October 22.[69]
Release[edit]
In the United States, Sex sold 150,000 copies on its release day,[70] with additional 500,000 units a week later.[1] The book also reached the number one on both The Washington Post and The New York Times Best Seller list, topping the latter for three weeks.[47][18] By the end of the year, Sex ended among the Top 15 of the best-selling titles in the United States with sales of over 750,000 units.[71][72] The book became a "huge bestseller" in Canada after a "careful review" by customs authorities according to Quill & Quire.[73] It sold out 45,000 copies across the country,[74] becoming one of the fastest-selling books in Canadian history.[50] In the United Kingdom, Sex sold 100,000 copies in its first day,[75] including 80,000 units in the first half an hour in London according to Creative Camera.[76] Sex ended as the second best-selling hardcover book of 1992 in the UK, behind Andrew Morton's Diana biography.[71]
In France, Madonna held the record for the highest first-month sales for a book in history, before being surpassed by Thierry Meyssan with L'Effroyable Impasture in 2002.[77] In Paris alone, 23,000 copies were sold in the first hour of release.[64] Sex sold 7,220 units in Spain within its first two days,[64] and 2,000 copies in the first five-hours in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina.[78] In Italy, the book moved 5,000 copies.[79] By October 24, a spokeswoman for Australian distributors, Octopus Publishing, informed thousands of copies of Sex had been sold in Western Australia.[80] Despite the censorship, Sex was able to sell 150,000 units of an edited version of the initial printing in Japan, topping the national best-selling list upon its release.[81][50] According to the Chinese state newspaper, the book sold 5,000 copies in the first-week in the city of Shanghai alone.[82] Although the book was censored shortly after its publication, several hundred of copies were sold in the Irish capital.[83]
Worldwide, the book sold 700,000 units in its first day.[84] In summary, Sex went on to sell 1.5 million copies worldwide in matters of days,[85] becoming the fastest-selling coffee table book in history.[86] It remains the best-selling coffee table book of all time.[87] In 1999, Ed Brown from Fortune called Sex the best-selling illustrated book in history, further comparing that "for most publishers, selling 20,000 copies of a coffee-table book is a minor miracle".[88]
Reactions[edit]
By December 1992, Paul Craig from McClatchy called it the biggest wonder of the year in literature.[89] Giselle Benatar described Sex as "the publishing event of the century".[1] A day prior its release, Tyra Braden of The Morning Call concluded that the book "might become a collector's item a few years down the road".[23] Writing for San Francisco Chronicle in 1999, Joel Selvin noted the prices for the book on the web, ranging from $200 to $500 for sealed copies; ten times the original $50 cover price.[90] According to Barry Walters from Rolling Stone in 2019, Sex remains one of the most in-demand out-of-print publications of all time.[91] A long-lasting title at BookFinder.com's lists,[92][93] Sex featured as the most requested out-of-print publication from 2011 to 2015.[86] In their database, AbeBooks recalls: "The most famous out-of-print book of modern times is Madonna's Sex book, which remains in demand but the pop star refuses to republish it".[94]
In popular culture[edit]
Sex has also become an object of modern culture references. American performance artist Ann Magnuson, who worked with Madonna on the 1985 film Desperately Seeking Susan, released a parody of the book's photo sessions, where she simulated sex with a giant stuffed bear.[128] In 2010, writer-performer Greg Scarnici released a book titled Sex in Drag, which featured over 70 images parodying photos in Sex.[129] In a deleted scene from a 1993 episode ("Krusty Gets Kancelled") of the animated sitcom The Simpsons, aired as part of "The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular", Krusty the Clown attempts to market a book like Sex to resolve his financial woes. He is seen in a suggestive pose on the front cover. Unlike Madonna, however, Krusty apparently never appeared fully nude, as he quickly claimed that he used a body double.[130]
In 2008, People magazine ranked Madonna's look and attire at the Sex pre-release party as one of her 50 Looks We Can't Forget.[131] In April 2012, a nude picture of Madonna taken by Meisel was put up for sale. An outtake from the book, it features a naked Madonna sporting bleach-blonde hair and dark eye make-up; lying on a bed and partially covered by a sheet, she is smoking a cigarette.[132] An unnamed collector purchased it for almost US$24,000 ($31,852 in 2023 dollars[39]).[133] In 2015, Rolling Stone included the book on its list of 20 Great Moments in Rock Star Nudity. Author Keith Harris wrote that "no celebrity had ever commanded control over her own naked image so audaciously".[134]