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The Joy of Sex was a ground-breaking illustrated sex manual by Alex Comfort, M.D., Ph.D., first published in 1972. It was the first illustrated, serious book about sex to gain wide distribution—at least in modern America. (One might argue, for instance, that the Kama Sutra provided somewhat similar information over 1,000 years before.) Earlier works, such as the 1966 Human Sexual Response by William H. Masters & Virginia E. Johnson, were more circumspect and clinical. Conversely, The Joy of Sex is rather circumspect and clinical in comparison to The Guide to Getting it On, published 20 years later.

The Joy of Sex spent eleven weeks at the top of the New York Times bestseller list and more than 70 weeks in the top five (1972–1974).

The original intention was to use the same mainstream approach as such books as The Joy of Cooking, hence section titles include "starters" and "main courses". The book features sexual practices such as oral sex and various sex positions as well as bringing "farther out" practices as sexual bondage and swinging to the attention of the general public.

The original version contained numerous illustrations by Chris Foss based on original photographs of the book's art director and his wife. The illustrations have become somewhat dated, mainly because of changes in hairstyles. Both the illustrations and text are titillating as well as illustrative, in contrast to the bland, clinical style of earlier books about sex. More recent editions feature new artwork, and added text emphasizing safer sex.

Although the original took a negative view of practices such as anal sex, newer versions reversed previously-supportive positions on topics such as swinging as extensive textual changes were made at the height of the 1980's AIDS panic.

A Phillips CD-i version was released in 1996, the first Entertainment Software Rating Board AO-rated console game.

The Joy of Sex did not address homosexual sex beyond a definitional level. Though there was a careful (for the day) treatment of bondage, other BDSM activities received definitional coverage at best. The book played a part in what is often called the sexual revolution.

Editions include:

• The Joy of Sex 1972
• More Joy of Sex (sequel, reissued in 1991 as ISBN 0-671-74076-8)
• The Joy of Sex ISBN 1-84000-042-2
• The Joy of Sex, Revised Edition ISBN 0-7043-8032-3
• The New Joy of Sex 1992 ISBN 0-517-59910-4 ISBN 0-671-77859-5"
• The Joy of Sex, 30th anniversary edition ISBN 1-84000-556-4, paperback ISBN 0-7434-7774-X, pocket ISBN 1-84000-606-4
• The Joy of Sex, 30th anniversary ISBN 1-84000-785-0
• Pocket Joy of Sex ISBN 1-84000-748-6
• El placer del sexo (The Joy of Sex) 2003 ISBN 1-4000-5931-3 en español

Unrelated works (similar in title):

• The Joy of Writing Sex ISBN 1-884910-21-1 (Elizabeth Benedict)
• The Joy of Gay Sex ISBN 0-06-001273-0 (Charles Silverstein; Edmund White)
• The Joy of Lesbian Sex ISBN 0-517-53159-3 (Emily L. Sisley; Bertha Harris)
• The New Joy of Gay Sex ISBN 0-85449-214-3 (Charles Silverstein; Felice Picano)
• The Joy of Tex (Michael Spivak)
• The Job of Sex (A Workingman's guide to Productive Lovemaking illustrated with pictures) (National Lampoon (author) and Brian McConnachie (ed.))

[edit] Cultural references

In an episode of That '70s Show. Kitty wants Red to have more adventurous "walks in the park." She uses The Joy of Sex as her manual.

In the Family Guy movie, Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story, Stewie and Stu read from The Joy of Sex.

The composer Milton Babbitt has written two famous works entitled "The Joy of Sextets" and "The Joy of More Sextets". Neither works are for sextet.

A book on set theory by Keith Devlin was named The Joy of Sets: Fundamentals of Contermporary Set Theory in reference to The Joy of Sex.

The VH1 series I Love the 70s covered "The Joy of Sex", and like all the segments, had the celebrity commentators either read passages or comment on their rememberances of the book.

[edit] References

• John Bear, The #1 New York Times Best Seller: intriguing facts about the 484 books that have been #1 New York Times bestsellers since the first list, 50 years ago, Berkeley: Ten Speed Press, 1992