Alex Comfort biography
Date of birth : 1920-02-10
Date of death : 2000-03-26
Birthplace : London, England
Nationality : English
Category : Famous Figures
Last modified : 2011-07-14
Credited as : Medical gerontologist, writer, Joy Of Sex
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A trained biologist and psychiatrist, Alexander Comfort's early career was devoted to the study of aging and a scholarly approach to sexual behavior. In 1972 he published one of the first bestsellers on sex, The Joy of Sex, which advocated greater sexual freedom. He then wrote about the psychological and sociological effects of "free love" in 1974's More Joy, and moved from England to California to continue writing and researching sexual behavior.
Author of books:
No Such Liberty (1941) – novel
Three New Poets (1942) – Alex Comfort, Roy McFadden, Ian Serraillier
A Wreath for the Living (1942)
Elegies (1944)
The Power House (1944) – novel
The Song of Lazarus (1945)
Outlaw of the Lowest Planet by Kenneth Patchen (1946) – Preface by Alex Comfort
Art and Social Responsibility (1946)
The Signal to Engage (1946)
Peace and Disobedience (1946) – pamphlet (reprinted in 1994 in Against Power and Death)
Barbarism and Sexual Freedom (1948) – non-fiction
On This Side Nothing (1949) – novel,influenced by Albert Camus, whose work Comfort admired
Authority and Delinquency in the Modern State (1950)
Sexual Behaviour in Society (1950) – non-fiction
And All But He Departed (1951)
A Giant's Strength (1952) – novel
The Biology of Senescence (1956) – non-fiction
Come out to Play (1961) – novel
Haste to the Wedding (1962)
Darwin and the Naked Lady (1962) – articles
Sex in Society (1963) – non-fiction
Ageing – the Biology of Senescence (1964)
Koka Shastra (1964)
Process of Ageing (1965)
The Nature of Human Nature – non-fiction (U. S. edition Harper & Row 1966)
Come out to Play (1975)
Poems for Jane (1979)
I and That: Notes on the Biology of Religion (1980)
Tetrarch (1981)-a fantasy novel inspired by William Blake
Reality And Empathy: Physics, Mind, and Science in the 21st Century (1984)
Imperial Patient (1987) – a historical novel about Nero.
The Philosophers (1989) – satire of Thatcher's Government set in the future.
Writings Against Power and Death (1994)