Milestones: 51 Years ago in Time

Alfred C. Kinsey is the subject of a new Hollywwod movie and a novel by T.C. Boyle. When Kinsy’s second book, on female sexuality, was published, TIME put him on the cover.

Less than six years ago, Kinsey & Co. .. brought out sexual behavior in the Human Male … It was cluttered with statistical furniture and dull, technical writing; Saunders, a staid old medical publishing house, thought it would be doing well to sell 5,000 copies. By now, the first Kinsey report has sold 250,000 copies in the U.S. and Canada plus thousands in six translations. It outraged many moralists, infuriated not a few scientists who questioned its reliability and was boon to radio comedians who found that Kinsey’s name had become and acceptable synonym for sex. One spinster snapped back at Kinsey that his elaborate study only confirmed what she had known all along–that “the male population is a herd of prancing, leering goats.” More serious critics took issue with the Kinsey method itself, and many of the [methodological] faults found with the male report also apply to the female.

–Time, Aug. 24, 1953