Simon Landis (1830 - 1902)

Simon Mohler Landis was a clergyman from Pennsylvania, pastor of the "First Progressive Church of Philadelphia" which he founded in 1865. Frequently bankrupt, he made a living through lectures and by selling inventions such as the "Patent Compound Male and Female Magnitude Syringe and Organic Bath". He styled himself a doctor, although there is no evidence that he ever received this academic degree. An Entirely New Feature of a Thrilling Novel: Entitled, The Social War of the Year 1900; Or, Conspirators and Lovers. A Lesson for Saints and Sinners is his only work of fiction. He also wrote a sexual education book, A Strictly Private Book on Marriage: Secrets of a Generation (1870), on account of which he was prosecuted for obscenity and jailed for five months. He recounted this trial in Prison Life Thoughts (1872) and remonstrated in publications against self-abuse, free love and doctors.