Larry Flynt is best known as the publisher of Hustler magazine; the victim of a sniper’s bullet that left him paralyzed from the waist down in 1978; and a staunch defender of the First Amendment — thanks to a series of well-publicized legal battles.
He’s also an author.
Flynt’s recent book, co-written with historian David Eisenbach, lays it all out in the title: “One Nation Under Sex: How the Private Lives of Presidents, First Ladies and Their Lovers Changed the Course of American History.”
Q: What surprised me about the book is how unsalacious it is. While the tone is occasionally playful, more often it is measured. And with more than 20 pages of footnotes, it’s scholarly, too. I think people will be surprised. I wanted this to be a history book because publications of history books tend to be conservative, and they only want policy and politics. We wanted to show how sex lives through the years have really affected policy.
A:
No one has ever taken the time to go back and document these various relationships or so-called sex scandals. Remember, the press has looked the other way in many instances. After the Cold War, though, all that changed.
Q: Most compelling to me were the details about our country’s earliest politicians, including the randiness of Ben Franklin — who was dispatched to France as an ambassador because of his “irrepressible sex drive” — the flirtatiousness of Dolley Madison. Do you find that readers are more troubled by the sex lives of certain presidents than others?Most people really have trouble dealing with Thomas Jefferson. He wasn’t made out of stone and marble. They can’t envision him fathering six children with a slave — here’s a guy who drafted the Declaration of Independence. But he definitely set the tone for what was to come.
A:
And we never found any individual whose sex life or libido inhibited their ability to govern.
Q: There’s a passage in the book about FDR and the loss of the use of his legs: “Worst of all for a man famous for his ‘breathing health and virility,’ he was no longer ‘the engaging picture of American manhood.’ FDR not only lost the use of his legs, he lost himself.” Could this passage describe you, as well? Roosevelt’s mistresses were strong women, and I think they developed a unique bond with him.
A:
Roosevelt was probably a lot like me in that I’m the type of person, I don’t dwell on anything I can’t do anything about. Roosevelt accepted his paralysis. Now, I’m not of Roosevelt’s stature, but I’m talking about the means of surviving.
Q: What did you think of Milos Forman’s 1996 film, “The People Vs. Larry Flynt,” which showed your struggle to publish Hustler?It was accurate. And embarrassing to watch. It was part of my life. If I had to do it over, I wouldn’t have behaved the way I did.
A:
Q: Within hours of the resignation of U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner, you offered him a job at Flynt Management Group. Why?He was giving the Democrats a tough time. For three weeks, he was sucking up all the oxygen, hurting the party pretty bad. A lot of time, there are sex scandals that don’t really result in a crisis, but this was a crisis. He needed to resign, but he didn’t have anywhere to go. I said, “I can fix that.”
A:
Q: Did Weiner respond?No, he did not.
A:
