The Massage Book: 25th Anniversary Edition

The Massage Book: 25th Anniversary Edition
by George Downing

The Massage Book: 25th Anniversary Edition
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Book Summary Information

Author: George Downing
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Format: Special Edition
Published: 1998-12-01
ISBN: 067977789X
Number of pages: 192
Publisher: Random House
Accessories:

Book Reviews of The Massage Book: 25th Anniversary Edition

Book Review: The great Esalen Massage classic
Summary: 5 Stars

George Downing and Anne Kent Rush, The Massage Book (Berkeley, CA: The Bookworks, and New York: Random House) First printing, January 1972. First cloth printing, May 1972, price $7.95. In the U.S. there were thirty-eight printings until 1996 and also in 1972 an additional printing for the Book of the Month Club. This is the first manual on massage written for the layperson. Massage, as developed and practiced at the world-renowned Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California and in San Francisco, is described by the authors who were members of the teaching staff. With a first printing of only 30,000 copies, this classic text for Esalen Massage became a huge bestseller with two million copies having been sold worldwide. This book remains in print and remains my favorite for learning Esalen Massage. The beautifully simple line drawings by Anne Kent Rush illustrating the text seem to step off the page and are far more effective in conveying meaning than are still photographs. The Twenty-fifth Anniversary Edition, 1998, has an added introduction by Anne Kent Rush; it's priced at $14.95.

Anne Kent Rush in her most recent book, Massage for Total Well-Being: Massage and Meditation for the Seven Centers of Health, with photographs by Victoria Rauhofer, (New York: A Byron Preiss Book, Universe Publishing, Rizzoli International Publications) Nov 2000, describes the inception of The Massage Book:
As of 1970, medical texts provided the only information on massage. . . . As both a massage enthusiast and a writer, I was inspired to produce a massage manual for the layperson. . . . I began teaching at the Esalen Institute in California and worked often with George Downing. . . . I led training groups for health professionals on how to integrate body-therapy techniques into traditional medical practice. I suggested my idea to George. . . . Don Gerard, managing editor of The Bookworks in Berkeley, was adventurous enough to take on the project when nobody else thought the general public would be interested, and we copublished The Massage Book with Random House. The book caught on like wildfire and is still in print today, enjoying an exceptional publishing life. Having been a part of bringing massage into modern American living gives me great satisfaction.

Anne Kent Rush is my favorite author of books that describe the operating procedures of the various bodywork approaches. She is the author of fifteen books, among which are the following:

Getting Clear: Body Work for Women (Berkeley, CA: The Bookworks, and New York: Random House) Mar 1973.

Feminism as Therapy; with Anica Vesel Mander (Berkeley, CA: The Bookworks, and New York: Random House) Jul 1974.

Moon, Moon (Berkeley, CA: Moon Books, and New York: Random House) Jul 1976.

The Basic Back Book (Berkeley, CA: Moon Books, and New York: Summit/ Simon & Schuster) Aug 1979.

The Back Rub Book (New York: Vintage/Random House) Jul 1989.

Romantic Massage (New York: Avon) Feb 1991.

The Dell trilogy (New York: Dell/Bantam Doubleday Dell and Byron Preiss Visual)
The Modern Book of Massage, Oct 1994.
The Modern Book of Yoga, Oct 1996.
The Modern Book of Stretching, Apr 1997.

Bodywork Basics: A Guide to the Powers and Pleasures of Your Body (New York: Dell/Random House) Jan 2000. A marvelous survey, guide, and introduction to the many bodywork approaches.

Massage for Total Well-Being: Massage and Meditation for the Seven Centers of Health, with photographs by Victoria Rauhofer, (New York: A Byron Preiss Book, Universe Publishing, Rizzoli International Publications) Nov 2000.

The Way of Stretching: Flexibility for Body and Mind (Boston: Little, Brown and Company) Aug 2005.

Summary of The Massage Book: 25th Anniversary Edition

Published in 1972 and continuously in print since then, The Massage Book introduced Swedish massage to American culture.

Still current and well regarded, The Massage Book was listed by National Health magazine as the first of twenty-five best books that have changed our thinking about our health and our world. Today, as alternative treatments are being discovered by mainstream health plans, massage is still going strong. In the last twenty-five years, countless books on massage have been published, but none rivals The Massage Book.

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