Roger Goodland

Roger Goodland (June 1880 – December 1944) was a British bibliographer and author best known for his large annotated bibliography of literature concerning sexual rites, customs and their religious and anthropological aspects.

Life Roger Goodland was born in Taunton, Somerset in June 1880. His father was Charles Goodland (1845-1924) from Taunton, his mother Kate (1845-1921) was born in Montréal, Canada. Little biographical information about Roger Goodland has been identified in readily available sources. However, it is known that he lived in Canada for an extended period of time and served in the Somerset Light Infantry during World War I.

Goodland died in December 1944 and is buried at St. James Cemetery, Somerset, England.

A Bibliography of Sex Rites and Customs Goodland's principal work was A Bibliography of Sex Rites and Customs: An Annotated Record of Books, Articles and Illustrations in All Languages, published in London by George Routledge & Sons in 1931. The first edition comprised 752 pages in total. The bibliography contained approximately 9,000 entries. The entries were arranged alphabetically by author and were supplemented by a substantial subject index. Goodland also provided brief indications of the subjects covered by individual works and page references to the relevant topics. The bibliography covered subjects including phallicism, religion and sexuality, primitive religion, and the religious aspects of sex. It was also reviewed in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1932 and in the Journal of American Folklore in 1933.

The contemporary review in Nature described it as a "monumental work" in which "a high standard of accuracy is maintained". The reviewer assumed that Goodland had spent between fifteen and twenty years compiling the bibliography.

The book was subsequently reprinted. Editions were published by AMS Press in 1974 and by Longwood Press in 1977, indicating that the work continued to be relevant to researchers decades after its original publication.