Sex the Measure of All Things: A Life of Alfred C. Kinsey

by Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy

A balanced, moving, humane portrait of one of this century’s great researchers and social reformers. "America produced Alfred Kinsey, but he’s big enough to go around." ―Elaine Showalter, Times Literary Supplement "A deeply humane book...This biography’s vivid portrait of a genius possessed is so compelling that you end up caring more about the man than the science. Kinsey is one of the most fascinating and influential figures of the century, a flawed visionary whose brave and amusing experiences are a testament to the rich complexity of human sexuality...With grace and wit Gathorne-Hardy has given us the full measure of the man." ―Michael Shelden, Daily Telegraph "At exactly the right moment, Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy has produced a serious study of Kinsey, of the man and the work...This is the book we needed to cap Kinsey’s work of liberation at this century’s end. ―Gore Vidal For Gathorne-Hardy, Kinsey is primarily an artist, a collector, a novelist, a mythologist. He is a pioneer of modernism, along with Lawrence, Henry Miller and Picasso, and a philosopher of sexuality, along with Foucault. These may sound like strange bedfellows for the son of a strict Methodist family, growing up in small-town America. But in making Kinsey part of a global twentieth-century culture, Gathorne-Hardy opens the way for other scholars and critics to read the life and the work from a variety of intellectual and national perspectives. Alfred Kinsey was this century’s first scientifically reputable and most influential researcher into sex. His Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (The Kinsey Report), published in 1948, was an explosive bestseller, followed in 1953 by his even more radical statistics on female sexuality ― both based on over 18,000 case histories. But Kinsey’s exploration went much further than that. Bisexual, he experimented with many of the behaviors he was hearing about; and his wife and close colleagues experimented too. He pioneered observation and filming of sexual activity, the findings anticipated, and confirmed by, Masters and Johnson thirty years later. The revolutionary nature of his views on female sexuality could not become current until the feminism of the 1970s and 80s. There have been suggestions that his bisexuality and his courageous personal exploration biased his research. In fact, the reverse is true―they partly explain why it was so successful and, in a field where only approximations are possible, more accurate than any since. Except where the culture has changed (with pre-marital sex, for example), all his major findings―including his figures on homosexuality―still stand up. As a result, his data (only 10% went into his two vast books) is still being actively mined today. This fascinating biography describes Kinsey’s strict Methodist upbringing, his love of minute observation which he applied first to academic entomology and then to human sexuality, and the obsessive work ethic that contributed to his death. Kinsey is perhaps even more controversial today than he was when his work was first published. Other researchers and religious groups have attacked his work from different perspectives. The man himself has frequently been lost in all of the claims and counterclaims, attacks and defenses, as well as the efforts to make him conform to predetermined theories about his personality and behavior. Gathorne-Hardy’s literate, humane work is the first major biography to give a balanced portrait of one of this century’s pioneering researchers and social reformers. He has interviewed in depth surviving family members, close colleagues, friends, lovers. He reveals, in this subtle, often witty, penetrating study, not just a series of new revelations, but whole new aspects of this complex, difficult, contradictory, heroic, obsessive, and ultimately sympathetic man.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Sexuality, History, Biography Memoir

528 pages, Hardcover

First published September 8, 1998

About the author

British author born in 1933, nephew of the English garden writer Robert Gathorne-Hardy.

Reviews

[Dotty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book - I loved learning that the film KINSEY - is based on the biography of Alfred Kinsey by Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy. Kinsey was a complex character & a brilliant scientist - and I am proud that he began his renowned sex research right here in my home town, Bloomington, Indiana.
(I'm also a bit proud of the fact that his grand-daughter - Wendy Kinsey Corning is my wonderful and very caring gynecologist!)

From Publishers Weekly
Beyond sex researcher Alfred Kinsey's motives—to enlighten people about sex and thereby sweep away crippling fear and ignorance about it—lay a troubled individual whose research helped him conquer his own psychological demons. In this companion book to the film on Kinsey's life currently in theaters, Kinsey biographer Gathorne-Hardy, Newsweek editor Wolfe and director/screenwriter Condon cover these facts and others with fascinating detail. Both Wolfe's biographical essay and Condon's script dramatize Kinsey's struggle with a puritanical father and his romance with graduate student Clara McMillen, who became his lifelong partner and support. Their relationship survived a difficult early sexual adjustment, as well as Kinsey's homosexual liaisons, while Kinsey's 1948 report Sexual Behavior in the Human Male made waves across the country. The book's second half is devoted to the shooting script, which offers a dramatic contrast to the precise, academic nature of Gathorne Hardy's introduction and Wolfe's essay. In a q&a, Condon talks of his affinity for portraying misfits and outsiders and his decision to adopt a classical Merchant/Ivory filmmaking approach. No biographical work—print or film—can capture all aspects of such a contradictory person, but this book certainly ranks as one of the most illuminating studies ever published about its complex, groundbreaking subject. 32 pages of color photos.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Held my interest. Kinsey was a sick, twisted man. Pedophilia was ok. Coercing people into sexual acts ok, especially if it's your wife or one of your employees or their wives.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really long book - but fascinating from an anthropological standpoint. I saw the movie and was dying to know how much of it was true and what was creative license. Sounds like it was an interesting family to be a part of.

[Vikki · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a biography of Alfred Kinsey, the sex-scientist of the 40's and 50's. We had seen a movie of his life recently. My husband,Mike, thought he was a pervert. I was more sympathetic. His own homosexuality and view of sexuality probably skewed the results of his work.

[Audrey Babkirk Wellons · Rating 5 out of 5]

Right up there with Oscar Wilde’s bio, and also serves as a fascinating portrait of postwar America.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting biography of a man unafraid to be different who became obsessed with his life work. Also a very good summary of his work and the reason it was so significant for the time.

[Danita · Rating 2 out of 5]

interesting subject matter makes up for poorly written text

[Daniel Parks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting read. The author occasionally complains about how wrong other authors have gotten Kinsey, and falls on the sympathetic side of balanced.