Alfred Kinsey became a household name in the 1950s for his research on the sexual mores of American women and men. His two major texts, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948) and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953), broke new ground in the field of sex research and led to more open and honest investigations of sexual practices. Before he achieved international fame as a sex researcher, Kinsey had already established himself in the world of science as a leading zoologist and entomologist, becoming the world's foremost authority on the American gall wasp . Throughout his career, regardless of the subject, Kinsey remained inquisitive and scientifically high-minded.

Kinsey was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, on June 23, 1894. His father, Alfred, taught at the Stevens Institute of Technology, despite having only an eighth-grade education. His mother, Sarah Ann (Charles), the daughter of a carpenter, had completed only four years of schooling...