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Alexander Comfort (10 February 1920 - 26 March 2000) was educated at Highgate School and Trinity College, Cambridge and was a medical professional, gerontologist, anarchist, pacifist, conscientious objector and writer, best known for The Joy of Sex, which played a part in what is often called the sexual revolution. He was also the author of many other books on a variety of topics.
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Education
Comfort studied medicine at the University of Cambridge (pre-clinical study leading to a BA, upgraded in 1944 to an MA) and the London Hospital (now known as the Royal London Hospital), qualifying in 1944 with both the Conjoint diplomas of LRCP london, MRCS England and the Cambridge MB BChir degrees.
Life and work
Comfort served as a House Physician at the London Hospital and went on to become a lecturer in physiology at the London Hospital Medical College. In 1945 he obtained the Conjoint Board's Diploma in Child Health, and progressed to a PhD in 1950 and a DSc of the University of London in 1963.1
He had a successful academic career in both England and the United States of America, in parallel with his social and political activism, and was a prolific writer.
Comfort's hastily-written 1972 book The Joy of Sex earned him world-wide fame and $3 million. But he was bitter to become known as "Dr. Sex" and to have his other work given so little relative attention2.
Comfort devoted much of the 1950s and 1960s studying the biology of aging (biogerontology) as well as popularizing the subject. He could be called an early biomedical gerontologist (life extensionist) on the basis of his view that science could extend human lifespan. In 1969 he suggested that life expectancy (not simply maximum life span) could be extended to 120 within 20 years3. Although Comfort believed that aging could be postponed, he did not believe that it could be eliminated, and he did not write about rejuvenation4.
In old age he returned to England, and in his last years was disabled after a stroke.
Partial bibliography
- 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
- Barbarism And Sexual Freedom (1948) - non-fiction
- On This Side Nothing (1949) - novel
- 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 Joy of Sex: A Gourmet Guide to Lovemaking (1972)
- Come out to Play (1975)
- I And That: Notes On The Biology of Religion (1979)
- Poems for Jane (1979)
- Tetrach (1981)
- Reality And Empathy: Physics, Mind, And Science In The 21st Century (1984)
- Writings Against Power and Death (1994)
References
- ^ The Medical Directory 1969 (125 ed.), London: J & A Churchill, 1969, p. 356
- ^ Martin, Douglas (2000-03-20). "Alex Comfort, 80, Dies; a Multifaceted Man Best Known for Writing 'The Joy of Sex'", The New York Times. Retrieved on 23 August 2008.
- ^ Rayner, Claire (2000-03-28). "News: Obituaries: Alex Comfort", The Guardian. Retrieved on 23 August 2008.
- ^ "Gerontology A Good Age by Alex Comfort" (HTML). Trivia-Library.com (1975 - 1981). Retrieved on 2008-08-23.
External links
- Biography of Alex Comfort - with attention to his anarchist politics
- See the Alex Comfort Page in the Anarchist Encyclopedia
- Guardian obituary
- Find-A-Grave profile for Alex Comfort
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