The Joy of Sex

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Published in 1972, The Joy of Sex, by Alex Comfort (1920–2000), became the first mass-market book to treat sexuality in a frank and lighthearted way, complete with illustrations designed to help people understand and enjoy intimate matters that had often been shrouded in secrecy. Its author was a British doctor, poet-novelist, and social activist who researched and wrote the book, though he is described as its editor. The Joy of Sex was published at a time when U.S. society was loosening many of the rigid, puritanical attitudes that had prevented open discussions about sex. Although some critics were unhappy at the book's condescending …