Sylvanus Stall

Who was Sylvanus Stall?

Sylvanus Stall was a United States Lutheran pastor, most famous for his 1897 sex education and anti-masturbation book What A Young Boy Ought To Know and its many sequels.

Stall was born in Elizaville, New York. In 1866 he entered Hartwick Seminary, then Pennsylvania State University and the Union Theological Seminary in New York City. He was ordained a minister in 1874.

Stall held a Doctor of Divinity degree. He was initially a pastor in Cobleskill, New York, Martins Creek, Pennsylvania and Lancaster, Pennsylvania, but quit in 1887 to edit church newspaper The Lutheran Observer and start writing books. He also produced Stall's Lutheran Year-Book from 1884 on. He was also statistical secretary of the Lutheran General Synod from 1885.

After several small-selling books, he released the enormously popular What A Young Boy Ought To Know, a book on sexual hygiene, warning young boys of the purported dangers of masturbation. The book was a transcript of a series of sermons Stall recorded on Edison wax phonograph cylinders, so is divided into "cylinders" rather than chapters. A cylinder collection was also offered for sale, which may be the first audiobook.