Such Were My Temptations: Bawdy Americans, 1760-1830

A museum exhibit in your hands, this enhanced ebook takes readers into the surprising, secret world of America's first sexual revolution. See early explicit art from rare-books archives that will forever change your sense of "Puritanical" New England. Learn how the founding fathers--and mothers--rewrote society’s rules, even in their bedrooms. Watch and listen to video and audio segments providing additional historical color. Join a conversation with historians and sexologists. Such Were My Temptations is at once an exhibit, a story, a salon. It brings out the best of what digital books can be, finding the perfect sweet spot where history is vibrantly brought to life through a dynamic combination of text, pictures, multimedia, and social media. In one example, Such Were My Temptations presents a polyamory poem video reenactment–complete with actress in period dress—to help readers truly feel what that old word ‘ribald’ really means.

Note: While in a scholarly context, the images are explicit enough to be for mature audiences only.

Such Were My Temptations stands on its own as an intriguing historical exhibit and also works as a non-fiction companion to Kocks’s historical novel, The Glass Harmonica, A Sensualist’s Tale. In keeping with the most dynamic element of the transmedia vision, the book app together with the paperback novel provides an immensely richer and more deeply layered presentation for those fascinated by the story and the era. The book app is a production of Beware The Timid Life™ publishing. Learn more at www.BewareTheTimidLife.com. Called a "knock-out historical novel" and a finalist for the 2011 Utah Book Award, it is available in print and ebook. Learn more at www.RosaMiraBooks.com.

“Kocks leaves no stone unturned in upsetting today’s definition of “Puritanical.” From political sex scandals to polyamorous poetry, New England’s first citizens evidently had plenty in common with today’s Americans. Those who think of the 1760s as an era of widespread chastity should brace themselves for surprise before reading Tempations.”

-- The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction