The Marriage Book ─ Centuries of Advice, Inspiration, and Cautionary Tales from Adam & Eve to Zoloft

The definitive anthology of wisdom and wit about one of life’s most complex, intriguing, and personal subjects.

When and whom do you marry? How do you keep a spouse content? Do all engaged couples get cold feet? How cold is so cold that you should pivot and flee? Where and how do children fit in? Is infidelity always wrong? In this volume, you won’t find a single answer to your questions about marriage; you will find hundreds.

Spanning centuries and cultures, sources and genres, The Marriage Book offers entries from ancient history and modern politics, poetry and pamphlets, plays and songs, newspaper ads and postcards. It is an A to Z compendium, exploring topics from Adam and Eve to Anniversaries, Fidelity to Freedom, Separations to Sex. In this volume, you’ll hear from novelists, clergymen, sex experts, and presidents, with guest appearances by the likes of Liz and Dick, Ralph and Alice, Louis CK, and Beyonce. Casanova calls marriage the tomb of love, and Stephen King calls it his greatest accomplishment. With humor, perspective, breadth, and warmth, The Marriage Book is sure to become a classic.

Lisa Grunwald and Stephen J. Adler collaborated on two bestselling anthologies: Women’s Letters: America from the Revolutionary War to the Present and Letters of the Century: America 1900-1999. Grunwald is the author of the novels The Irresistible Henry House, Whatever Makes You Happy, New Year’s Eve, The Theory of Everything, and Summer. Adler is the president and editor-in-chief of Reuters. Grunwald and Adler have been married to each other for twenty-six years and plan to stay that way.