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Alex Comfort
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<h2 id="early-life-and-education">Early life and education</h2> <p>Comfort was born in <a href="/facts/Palmers_Green/v74XDb48">Palmers Green</a>, North London, and raised in <a href="/facts/London_Borough_of_Barnet/kPYRNjzL">Barnet</a>, <a href="/facts/Hertfordshire/TcBlCoSp">Hertfordshire</a>, then a London suburb. His parents were Alexander Charles Comfort, an administrator in education at the <a href="/facts/London_County_Council/8l1HlEoL">London County Council</a>, and Daisy Elizabeth (Fenner) Comfort, a former teacher, who taught her son French and some Latin by the time he began school.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2"><sup>2</sup></a> He was educated at <a href="/facts/Highgate_School/tlclX6es">Highgate School</a> in London. While he was a student there he tried to develop an improved compound of <a href="/facts/Gunpowder/AEcB6HCR">gunpowder</a>. During his experiments he inadvertently blew up his left hand, of which only the thumb remained. Later he claimed that his left hand proved "very useful for performing <a href="/facts/Uterine_inversion/puxHC6c0">uterine inversions</a>".<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a> </p><p>Comfort had a passion for <a href="/facts/Mollusca/1elgknsQ">molluscs</a>, developed on family holidays in <a href="/facts/Hartland,_Devon/QwG6Gg0B">Hartland</a>, on the <a href="/facts/Devon/go3z9lDW">Devon</a> coast,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a> and he joined the <a href="/facts/Conchological_Society_of_Great_Britain_%26_Ireland/u3h4Gjqo">Conchological Society of Great Britain & Ireland</a> when he was eighteen years old. He made many contributions to the literature.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5"><sup>5</sup></a> </p><p>He <a href="/facts/Matriculation/l01e6eGM">matriculated</a> at <a href="/facts/Trinity_College,_Cambridge/uI0I61Sb">Trinity College, Cambridge</a> and studied medicine, qualifying in 1944 with the <a href="/facts/Conjoint/lEwu8D3G">conjoint</a> diplomas of Licentiate of the <a href="/facts/Royal_College_of_Physicians/e2XN5DvU">Royal College of Physicians</a> (LRCP) London, <a href="/facts/Member_of_the_Royal_College_of_Surgeons/Jn4jztuU">Member of the Royal College of Surgeons</a> (MRCS) England, and Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery or <a href="/facts/Bachelor_of_Medicine,_Bachelor_of_Surgery/lrQeIBuh">MB BChir</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6"><sup>6</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="life-and-work">Life and work</h2> <p>Comfort served as a house physician at the <a href="/facts/London_Hospital/c8nWuJnY">London Hospital</a> and later became a lecturer in physiology at the London Hospital Medical College. During 1945 he obtained the Conjoint Board's Diploma in Child Health. He progressed to a PhD in 1949 for a <a href="/facts/Dissertation/dYnTaYqQ">dissertation</a> titled “The Acid-Soluble Pigments of Molluscan Shells (with Special Reference to Porphyrins)" from the <a href="/facts/University_of_London/spIRAx9B">University of London</a>, and a DSc in the field of gerontology, also from the University of London, in 1962.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7"><sup>7</sup></a> </p><p>A pacifist, Comfort considered himself "an aggressive anti-militarist", and he believed that pacifism rested "solely upon the <a href="/facts/Anarcho-pacifism/IwvN1qBn">historical theory of anarchism</a>".<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:8" href="#fn:8"><sup>8</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:9" href="#fn:9"><sup>9</sup></a> During <a href="/facts/World_War_II/2efV5L1U">World War Two</a>, Comfort wrote a letter to the <i><a href="/facts/Tribune_(magazine)/3rjFWYv4">Tribune</a></i> (2 April 1943) denouncing the <a href="/facts/Allies_of_World_War_II/YzCdtjDY">Allied</a> bombing of civilians: </p> <blockquote> <p>The bombardment of Europe is not the work of soldiers nor of responsible statesmen. It is the work of bloodthirsty fools. ... Night after night those Europeans who risk their liberty to listen can hear the emetic threatenings and boastings of bloody-minded and reactionary civilians. They contrast the alacrity and satisfaction which attend each contemptible operation with the subterfuge and sloth which we have displayed in such tasks of constructive policy as the admission to sanctuary of the <a href="/facts/Jewish_refugees_from_German-occupied_Europe_in_the_United_Kingdom/9yV8Jmqj">Jewish refugees</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:10" href="#fn:10"><sup>10</sup></a> </p> </blockquote> <p>In a letter to <i><a href="/facts/Horizon_(British_magazine)/Kq6CJdYh">Horizon</a></i> in 1942 Comfort claimed that a Nazi victory over the United Kingdom would lead to a literary renaissance, for which he was fiercely criticised by <a href="/facts/George_Orwell/aIQhGvNh">George Orwell</a> in the <i><a href="/facts/Partisan_Review/gYAU21R8">Partisan Review</a></i>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:11" href="#fn:11"><sup>11</sup></a> Comfort was an active member of the <a href="/facts/Peace_Pledge_Union/JmDDek5U">Peace Pledge Union</a> (PPU) and <a href="/facts/Campaign_for_Nuclear_Disarmament/ubxpbmJv">Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament</a>, and a <a href="/facts/Conscientious_objector/ovN3dAja">conscientious objector</a> in <a href="/facts/World_War_II/2efV5L1U">World War II</a>. In 1951 Comfort was a signatory of the Authors' World Peace Appeal, but later resigned from its committee, claiming the AWPA had become dominated by <a href="/facts/Soviet_Union/m7wWsPto">Soviet</a> sympathisers.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:12" href="#fn:12"><sup>12</sup></a> Later in the decade he actively endorsed both the Direct Action Committee against Nuclear War, 1957, and the <a href="/facts/Committee_of_100_(United_Kingdom)/7FKJbtg4">Committee of 100</a>, 1960. Comfort was imprisoned for a month, with <a href="/facts/Bertrand_Russell/SRpwNX2U">Bertrand Russell</a> and other leading members of the Committee of 100, for refusing to be bound not to continue organising the Parliament Square/Trafalgar Square protest of 17 September 1961. </p><p>Among the publications by Comfort concerning anarchism are <i>Peace and Disobedience</i> (1946), one of many pamphlets he wrote for <i><a href="/facts/Peace_News/pTzGYpo2">Peace News</a></i> and PPU, and <i>Authority and Delinquency in the Modern State</i> (1950).<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:13" href="#fn:13"><sup>13</sup></a> He exchanged public correspondence with <a href="/facts/George_Orwell/aIQhGvNh">George Orwell</a> defending pacifism in the open letter/poem, "Letter to an American Visitor," under the pseudonym Obadiah Hornbrooke.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:14" href="#fn:14"><sup>14</sup></a> </p><p>Comfort's book <i><a href="/facts/The_Joy_of_Sex/EIvyXEtR">The Joy of Sex</a></i> (1972) earned him worldwide fame and $3 million. But he was unhappy about becoming known as "Dr. Sex" and having his other works given little attention.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:15" href="#fn:15"><sup>15</sup></a> </p><p>Comfort devoted much of the 1950s and 1960s to studying the biology of ageing (<a href="/facts/Biogerontology/VG7QwcKs">biogerontology</a>) and popularised the subject. During 1969 he suggested that <a href="/facts/Life_expectancy/uPc8bWWW">life expectancy</a> (not simply <a href="/facts/Maximum_life_span/oWjyvNvG">maximum life span</a>) could be extended to 120 years of age within the next 20 years.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:16" href="#fn:16"><sup>16</sup></a> Although Comfort believed that ageing could be postponed, he did not believe that it could be eliminated, and he did not write about <a href="/facts/Rejuvenation_(aging)/XkPNfYkA">rejuvenation</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:17" href="#fn:17"><sup>17</sup></a> </p><p>In 1989 Comfort made an extended appearance on the television discussion programme <i><a href="/facts/After_Dark_(TV_series)/M3VhkG1b">After Dark</a></i>, alongside, among others, <a href="/facts/Baron_McColl_of_Dulwich/NsAqALdC">Ian McColl</a> and <a href="/facts/David_Widgery/lhqXFb6U">David Widgery</a>. </p><p>One of Comfort's final letters was to <i><a href="/facts/The_Guardian/H84wwJYM">The Guardian</a></i> in 1989, protesting against the <a href="/facts/Margaret_Thatcher/E4JKgfJE">Thatcher</a> government's introduction of the <a href="/facts/Poll_tax_(Great_Britain)/8jjn5nyt">poll tax</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:18" href="#fn:18"><sup>18</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="personal-life">Personal life</h2> <p><i>The Joy of Sex</i> made Comfort known internationally as "Dr. Sex" and soon thereafter he and his wife of thirty years divorced. A few months later, during 1973, Comfort married his mistress (and ex-wife's best friend) Jane Henderson, with whom he had been having an affair for more than a decade. The <a href="/facts/Center_for_the_Study_of_Democratic_Institutions/Bb6hg9KQ">Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions</a>, a liberal <a href="/facts/Think_tank/xl9t8HmC">research institute</a>, offered Comfort a job, and so, during 1973, the couple relocated to <a href="/facts/Santa_Barbara,_California/0LDgyx86">Santa Barbara, California</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:19" href="#fn:19"><sup>19</sup></a> </p><p>They frequented the <a href="/facts/Sandstone_Retreat/xLyh4QNb">Sandstone Retreat</a>, a <a href="/facts/Naturism/h9caBs0I">clothing-optional community</a> in California espousing <a href="/facts/Open_marriage/s7YrYHNQ">open sexuality</a>. In his 1981 nonfiction publication concerning sexuality in America, <i><a href="/facts/Thy_Neighbor%27s_Wife_(book)/cXrmAzpb">Thy Neighbor's Wife</a></i>, <a href="/facts/Gay_Talese/7vU7EMMK">Gay Talese</a> noted, "Often the nude biologist Dr. Alex Comfort, brandishing a cigar, traipsed through the room between the prone bodies with the professional air of a <a href="/facts/Lepidopterology/GxdS438U">lepidopterist</a> strolling through the fields waving a butterfly net".<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:20" href="#fn:20"><sup>20</sup></a> </p><p>Jane Henderson, however, eventually became tired of the "<a href="/facts/Free_love/lrKARIMw">open love</a>" community and Comfort became involved in lawsuits with his employer concerning a claimed <a href="/facts/Breach_of_contract/KnlrmdBQ">breach of contract</a>. In 1985, the couple returned to England, where they lived the remainder of their lives in <a href="/facts/Kent/aYfQI6Fc">Kent</a>. </p><p>During 1991, Comfort suffered a severe <a href="/facts/Intracerebral_hemorrhage/LEmd3czW">cerebral hemorrhage</a>, after which his son from his first marriage acted as his caretaker and business manager. His second wife Jane Henderson died soon after the haemorrhage. He died on 26 March 2000; he was eighty years old.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:21" href="#fn:21"><sup>21</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="collections">Collections</h2> <p>In 1973 Comfort deposited his archive to <a href="/facts/University_College_London/7dmHhCf5">University College London</a>; it was supplemented by a second donation in 1992 by his son Nicholas.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:22" href="#fn:22"><sup>22</sup></a> The Comfort Papers span over 80 boxes of material and primarily focus on Comfort's career and research.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:23" href="#fn:23"><sup>23</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="partial-bibliography">Partial bibliography</h2> <table><tbody><tr><td><ul><li><i>No Such Liberty</i> (1941) – novel ‹See Tfd›<a href="/facts/Amazon_Standard_Identification_Number/twP2MtLk">ASIN</a> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007Q9DO6K">B007Q9DO6K</a></li><li><i>Three New Poets</i> (1942) – Alex Comfort, <a href="/facts/Roy_McFadden/ASEUNhVd">Roy McFadden</a>, <a href="/facts/Ian_Serraillier/DEQcwBKS">Ian Serraillier</a></li><li><i>A Wreath for the Living</i> (1942) ‹See Tfd›<a href="/facts/Amazon_Standard_Identification_Number/twP2MtLk">ASIN</a> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0007J03N8">B0007J03N8</a></li><li><i>Elegies</i> (1944)</li><li><i>The Power House</i> (1944) – novel</li><li><i>The Song of Lazarus</i> (1945) ‹See Tfd›<a href="/facts/Amazon_Standard_Identification_Number/twP2MtLk">ASIN</a> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0007DW3N2">B0007DW3N2</a></li><li><i>Outlaw of the Lowest Planet</i> by <a href="/facts/Kenneth_Patchen/nI5oDxvF">Kenneth Patchen</a> (1946) – Preface by Alex Comfort ‹See Tfd›<a href="/facts/Amazon_Standard_Identification_Number/twP2MtLk">ASIN</a> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0007IVLIU">B0007IVLIU</a></li><li><i>Art and Social Responsibility</i> (1946) ‹See Tfd›<a href="/facts/Amazon_Standard_Identification_Number/twP2MtLk">ASIN</a> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0007ITVGO">B0007ITVGO</a></li><li><i>The Signal to Engage</i> (1946) ‹See Tfd›<a href="/facts/Amazon_Standard_Identification_Number/twP2MtLk">ASIN</a> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00190YVC8">B00190YVC8</a></li><li><i>Peace and Disobedience</i> (1946) – pamphlet (reprinted in 1994 in <i>Against Power and Death</i>)<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:24" href="#fn:24"><sup>24</sup></a> <a href="/facts/OCLC_(identifier)/Yqad8waq">OCLC</a> <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/609741757">609741757</a></li><li><i>Barbarism and Sexual Freedom</i> (1948) – non-fiction <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 978-0838321478</li><li><i>On This Side Nothing</i> (1949) – novel, influenced by <a href="/facts/Albert_Camus/BKVazSsM">Albert Camus</a>, whose work Comfort admired ‹See Tfd›<a href="/facts/Amazon_Standard_Identification_Number/twP2MtLk">ASIN</a> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0006ARRLY">B0006ARRLY</a></li><li><i><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100522053611/http://alexcomfort.com/Authority.html"></a></i><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100522053611/http://alexcomfort.com/Authority.html">Authority and Delinquency in the Modern State<i></i></a> (1950) ‹See Tfd›<a href="/facts/Amazon_Standard_Identification_Number/twP2MtLk">ASIN</a> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D3W7RD4H">B0D3W7RD4H</a></li><li><i>Sexual Behaviour in Society</i> (1950) – non-fiction</li><li><i>Hygromia cinctella</i> (Draparnaud) in England. (1950) <a href="/facts/Journal_of_Conchology/b6vJ0Tm1">Journal of Conchology</a>. 23: 99–100.</li><li>Biochemistry of molluscan shell pigments. Proc malac Soc London. 28: 79–85.</li><li><i>And All But He Departed</i> (1951) ‹See Tfd›<a href="/facts/Amazon_Standard_Identification_Number/twP2MtLk">ASIN</a> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000V8RYF0">B000V8RYF0</a></li><li><i>A Giant's Strength</i> (1952) – novel ‹See Tfd›<a href="/facts/Amazon_Standard_Identification_Number/twP2MtLk">ASIN</a> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000CIBL1">B0000CIBL1</a></li></ul></td><td><ul><li><i>The Biology of <a href="/facts/Senescence/AHmBEpe8">Senescence</a></i> (1956) – non-fiction</li><li><i>Come Out to Play</i> (1961) – novel</li><li><i>Haste to the Wedding</i> (1962)</li><li><i>Darwin and the Naked Lady</i> (1962) – articles ‹See Tfd›<a href="/facts/Amazon_Standard_Identification_Number/twP2MtLk">ASIN</a> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0007DTUOC">B0007DTUOC</a></li><li><i>Sex in Society</i> (1963) – non-fiction ‹See Tfd›<a href="/facts/Amazon_Standard_Identification_Number/twP2MtLk">ASIN</a> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0019Y3HLU">B0019Y3HLU</a></li><li><i>Ageing – the Biology of Senescence</i> (1964)</li><li><i><a href="/facts/Ratirahasya/T2JQ1CBy">Koka Shastra</a>, being the Ratirahasya of Kokkota, and other medieval Indian writings on love</i> (George Allen & Unwin, 1964; translator) <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 978-1857324402</li><li><i>Process of Ageing</i> (1965) ‹See Tfd›<a href="/facts/Amazon_Standard_Identification_Number/twP2MtLk">ASIN</a> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000S9THCK">B000S9THCK</a></li><li><i>The Nature of Human Nature</i> – non-fiction (US edition Harper & Row 1966) ‹See Tfd›<a href="/facts/Amazon_Standard_Identification_Number/twP2MtLk">ASIN</a> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0006BQL6A">B0006BQL6A</a></li><li><i>The anxiety makers: some curious preoccupations of the medical profession</i>. Nelson (1967) ‹See Tfd›<a href="/facts/Amazon_Standard_Identification_Number/twP2MtLk">ASIN</a> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000CNHG1">B0000CNHG1</a></li><li><i><a href="/facts/The_Joy_of_Sex/EIvyXEtR">The Joy of Sex: a Gourmet Guide to Lovemaking</a></i> (1972)</li><li><i>More Joy of Sex: a Lovemaking Companion to The Joy of Sex</i> (1973) <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 978-0517566909</li><li><i>Come out to Play</i> (1975)</li><li><i>A Good Age</i> (1976)</li><li><i>Poems for Jane</i> (1979) <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 978-0855331566</li><li><i>The Facts of Love: Living, Loving and Growing Up</i> Crown Publishers (1980) <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 978-0517538395</li><li><i><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101217074313/http://www.alexcomfort.com/IandThat.html">I and That: Notes on the Biology of Religion</a></i> (1980)</li><li><i>Tetrarch</i> (1981)-a fantasy novel inspired by <a href="/facts/William_Blake/YQMnyh0G">William Blake</a></li><li><i>Reality And Empathy: Physics, Mind, and Science in the 21st Century</i> (1984) <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 978-0873957632</li><li><i>Imperial Patient</i> (1987) – a historical novel about <a href="/facts/Nero/1w3NteNP">Nero</a> <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 978-0715621684</li><li><i>The Philosophers</i> (1989) – satire of <a href="/facts/Margaret_Thatcher/E4JKgfJE">Thatcher</a>'s Government set in the future.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:25" href="#fn:25"><sup>25</sup></a></li><li><i>The New Joy of Sex: a Gourmet Guide to Lovemaking for the Nineties</i> (1992) <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 978-0517599105</li><li><i>Writings Against Power and Death</i> (1994) <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 978-0900384714</li></ul></td></tr></tbody></table> <h2 id="see-also">See also</h2> <ul> <li>Biography portal</li></ul> <ul><li><a href="/facts/Anarchism_in_the_United_Kingdom/uG7lnRDj">Anarchism in the United Kingdom</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/List_of_peace_activists/a8sLVAB5">List of peace activists</a></li></ul> <h2 id="bibliography">Bibliography</h2> <ul><li>Laursen, Eric (2023). <a href="https://www.akpress.org/polymath.html"><i>Polymath: The Life and Professions of Dr. Alex Comfort, Author of The Joy of Sex</i></a>. Chico/Edinburgh: <a href="/facts/AK_Press/s3AL0haR">AK Press</a>. <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 978-1-84935-496-7.</li></ul> <h2 id="external-links">External links</h2> <ul><li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140504172202/http://alexcomfort.net/">AlexComfort.net</a> includes full text of 'Authority and Delinquency' and 'I and That: Notes on the Biology of Religion'</li> <li><a href="http://libcom.org/history/comfort-alex-1920-2000">Biography of Alex Comfort</a> with attention to his anarchist politics</li> <li>See the Alex Comfort Page in the <i><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20040603120912/http://recollectionbooks.com/bleed/Encyclopedia/ComfortAlex.htm">Anarchist Encyclopedia</a></i></li> <li><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/obituaries/story/0,3604,182379,00.html">Guardian obituary</a></li> <li><a href="https://archives.ucl.ac.uk/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=COMFORT">Comfort Papers</a> at <a href="/facts/University_College_London/7dmHhCf5">University College London</a></li></ul> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>David Goodway, "Introduction" to Writings Against Power and Death: The Anarchist Articles and Pamphlets of Alex Comfort. London: Freedom Press, 1994. ISBN 0900384719 (pp. 7–30) <a href="/wiki/David_Goodway" target="_blank">/wiki/David_Goodway</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>Laursen 2023, pp. 10, 14. - Laursen, Eric (2023). Polymath: The Life and Professions of Dr. Alex Comfort, Author of The Joy of Sex. Chico/Edinburgh: AK Press. ISBN 978-1-84935-496-7. <a href="https://www.akpress.org/polymath.html" target="_blank">https://www.akpress.org/polymath.html</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>Levy, Ariel (5 January 2009). "Doing It: A New Edition of "The Joy of Sex."". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2 July 2012. <a href="/wiki/Ariel_Levy_(writer)" target="_blank">/wiki/Ariel_Levy_(writer)</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:4"><p>Laursen 2023, p. 29. - Laursen, Eric (2023). Polymath: The Life and Professions of Dr. Alex Comfort, Author of The Joy of Sex. Chico/Edinburgh: AK Press. ISBN 978-1-84935-496-7. <a href="https://www.akpress.org/polymath.html" target="_blank">https://www.akpress.org/polymath.html</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:5"><p>Dance, S Peter (2010). "Comfort and Joy Among the Snails of Chaldon". Mollusc World (24): 12. Retrieved 17 September 2015. <a href="http://www.conchsoc.org/MolluscWorld24/6" target="_blank">http://www.conchsoc.org/MolluscWorld24/6</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:6"><p>David Goodway, "Introduction" to Writings Against Power and Death: The Anarchist Articles and Pamphlets of Alex Comfort. London: Freedom Press, 1994. ISBN 0900384719 (pp. 7–30) <a href="/wiki/David_Goodway" target="_blank">/wiki/David_Goodway</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:7"><p>Laursen 2023, pp. 165, 254. - Laursen, Eric (2023). Polymath: The Life and Professions of Dr. Alex Comfort, Author of The Joy of Sex. Chico/Edinburgh: AK Press. ISBN 978-1-84935-496-7. <a href="https://www.akpress.org/polymath.html" target="_blank">https://www.akpress.org/polymath.html</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:8"><p>Rayner, Claire (28 March 2000). "News: Obituaries: Alex Comfort". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 18 September 2008. Retrieved 23 August 2008. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2000/mar/28/guardianobituaries" target="_blank">https://www.theguardian.com/news/2000/mar/28/guardianobituaries</a> <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:9"><p>For discussions of Comfort's political views, see Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism (1992) by Peter Marshall, Anarchist Seeds Beneath the Snow (2006) by David Goodway, and Polymath: The Life and Professions of Dr. Alex Comfort, author of The Joy of Sex (2023) by Eric Laursen. <a href="/wiki/Demanding_the_Impossible:_A_History_of_Anarchism" target="_blank">/wiki/Demanding_the_Impossible:_A_History_of_Anarchism</a> <a href="#fnref:9" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:10"><p>David Goodway, "Introduction" to Writings Against Power and Death: The Anarchist Articles and Pamphlets of Alex Comfort. London: Freedom Press, 1994. ISBN 0900384719 (pp. 7–30) <a href="/wiki/David_Goodway" target="_blank">/wiki/David_Goodway</a> <a href="#fnref:10" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:11"><p>"George Orwell: Pacifism and the War". <a href="http://www.orwell.ru/library/articles/pacifism/english/e_patw" target="_blank">http://www.orwell.ru/library/articles/pacifism/english/e_patw</a> <a href="#fnref:11" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:12"><p>Carissa Honeywell, A British Anarchist Tradition: Herbert Read, Alex Comfort and Colin Ward, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2011 ISBN 1441190171 (p. 112). <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" target="_blank">/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)</a> <a href="#fnref:12" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:13"><p>Rayner, Claire (28 March 2000). "News: Obituaries: Alex Comfort". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 18 September 2008. Retrieved 23 August 2008. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2000/mar/28/guardianobituaries" target="_blank">https://www.theguardian.com/news/2000/mar/28/guardianobituaries</a> <a href="#fnref:13" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:14"><p>Complete Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell volume II, pg. 294–303 <a href="#fnref:14" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:15"><p>Martin, Douglas (20 March 2000). "Alex Comfort, 80, Dies; a Multifaceted Man Best Known for Writing 'The Joy of Sex'". The New York Times. Retrieved 23 August 2008. <a href="https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E03E4DD173CF93AA15750C0A9669C8B63" target="_blank">https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E03E4DD173CF93AA15750C0A9669C8B63</a> <a href="#fnref:15" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:16"><p>Rayner, Claire (28 March 2000). "News: Obituaries: Alex Comfort". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 18 September 2008. Retrieved 23 August 2008. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2000/mar/28/guardianobituaries" target="_blank">https://www.theguardian.com/news/2000/mar/28/guardianobituaries</a> <a href="#fnref:16" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:17"><p>"Gerontology A Good Age by Alex Comfort". Trivia-Library.com. 1975–1981. Archived from the original on 20 July 2008. Retrieved 23 August 2008. <a href="http://www.trivia-library.com/b/gerontology-a-good-age-by-alex-comfort.htm" target="_blank">http://www.trivia-library.com/b/gerontology-a-good-age-by-alex-comfort.htm</a> <a href="#fnref:17" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:18"><p>David Goodway, "Introduction" to Writings Against Power and Death: The Anarchist Articles and Pamphlets of Alex Comfort. London: Freedom Press, 1994. ISBN 0900384719 (pp. 7–30) <a href="/wiki/David_Goodway" target="_blank">/wiki/David_Goodway</a> <a href="#fnref:18" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:19"><p>Levy, Ariel (5 January 2009). "Doing It: A New Edition of "The Joy of Sex."". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2 July 2012. <a href="/wiki/Ariel_Levy_(writer)" target="_blank">/wiki/Ariel_Levy_(writer)</a> <a href="#fnref:19" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:20"><p>Levy, Ariel (5 January 2009). "Doing It: A New Edition of "The Joy of Sex."". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2 July 2012. <a href="/wiki/Ariel_Levy_(writer)" target="_blank">/wiki/Ariel_Levy_(writer)</a> <a href="#fnref:20" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:21"><p>Levy, Ariel (5 January 2009). "Doing It: A New Edition of "The Joy of Sex."". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2 July 2012. <a href="/wiki/Ariel_Levy_(writer)" target="_blank">/wiki/Ariel_Levy_(writer)</a> <a href="#fnref:21" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:22"><p>UCL Special Collections. "Comfort Papers". UCL Archive Collections. Retrieved 1 July 2024. <a href="https://archives.ucl.ac.uk/CalmView/TreeBrowse.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&field=RefNo&key=COMFORT" target="_blank">https://archives.ucl.ac.uk/CalmView/TreeBrowse.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&field=RefNo&key=COMFORT</a> <a href="#fnref:22" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:23"><p>UCL Special Collections. "Comfort Papers". UCL Archive Collections. Retrieved 1 July 2024. <a href="https://archives.ucl.ac.uk/CalmView/TreeBrowse.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&field=RefNo&key=COMFORT" target="_blank">https://archives.ucl.ac.uk/CalmView/TreeBrowse.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&field=RefNo&key=COMFORT</a> <a href="#fnref:23" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:24"><p>Rayner, Claire (28 March 2000). "News: Obituaries: Alex Comfort". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 18 September 2008. Retrieved 23 August 2008. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2000/mar/28/guardianobituaries" target="_blank">https://www.theguardian.com/news/2000/mar/28/guardianobituaries</a> <a href="#fnref:24" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:25"><p>Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, by John Clute and Peter Nicholls, (1993). pg. 287. <a href="#fnref:25" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>