Polymath is the first biography of one of the most remarkable and wide-ranging intellectuals of the second half of the 20th century. Alex Comfort was a British poet, novelist, biologist, cultural critic, activist, and anarchist, and the author of the international bestseller, The Joy of Sex. He played a vital role in making gerontology (the study of aging) a viable branch of modern science, energizing the direct-action movement for nuclear disarmament, revitalizing anarchism as a political philosophy in the post-World War II decades, and persuading 12 million readers of his most popular book to banish guilt and anxiety from sex in favour of pleasure and closer human understanding.