Reviews and Blurbs So Far
Masters of Sex "offers a wonderfully written and totally absorbing look at an amazing couple." – Booklist, *starred review*
“Maier’s sedulously researched and deeply absorbing biography suggests that love is far more elusive than an orgasm … Set against a larger cultural landscape that spans the domesticated ‘50s and liberated ‘60s on up to the present, stopping on the way to evaluate the effect of Masters and Johnson’s work on everything from feminism to perfumes, Masters of Sex is a richly informed and elegantly organized account of the two people behind the logo that stood for new sexual horizons”. – Daphne Merkin in Tina Brown’s website “The Daily Beast.”
“The strangely chilling story of two sexual pioneers… Perhaps influenced by its steamy subject matter, Masters of Sex, Thomas Maier's new book about the couple's career, may strike some readers as unusually graphic for a biography, but this unsettling story of sex and science in theory and practice is ultimately more cautionary than titillating.” O – The Oprah Magazine.
“Absorbing …Masters of Sex is this spring's true must-read book for those looking to revisit the heady, early days of the sexual revolution.” – The American Prospect.
“As the story of Masters and Johnson makes clear, rescuing sex from the ancient mists of myth, mystery and religiosity left America a happier and healthier place. And yet Maier's book also suggests that our subsequent attempts to liberate sexual pleasure from the grip of fusty, old-fashioned love had much the opposite effect.” – Newsweek.
“There are plenty of fireworks here... An excellent writer and a top-notch reporter, Maier excels at providing intriguing details without veering into titillation, and the reader comes away with a great appreciation for the pioneering forthrightness of Masters and Johnson—especially considering it’s a field of study that still makes some uneasy.” – Penthouse.
“If there is a moral to this tale, it is perhaps that the human heart remains as much of a mystery as the sex organs once used to be.” – The Economist.
“Award-winning biographer Maier (Dr. Spock: An American Life) delivers the first in-depth look at a complex couple who helped revolutionize the study of human sexual response. Academics and amateur sexperts alike will rejoice.” – Library Journal.
“Masters of Sex is a terrific book about the unlikely couple who touched off the sexual revolution. More than a biography, this is an intimate history of sex in the twentieth-century.” -- Debby Applegate, Winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in Biography for The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher.
"The subject of this book--sex and love--should interest just about everyone. As a bonus, Thomas Maier is a very fine writer, an accomplished biographer, and an astute reporter. If you read only one biography this year, it should be this first-ever look at the secretive lives of Masters and Johnson." -- Nelson DeMille, bestselling author of "The Gold Coast "and "The Gate House"
"A well-written and insightful account of Masters and Johnson, who, in a clinical sense, probably knew more about sex and marital love than any other couple in America." -- Gay Talese, author of "Thy Neighbor's Wife "and "A Writer's Life"
“It’s hard to imagine any sex researcher or serious student of sexuality who wouldn’t profit from reading this book. The information revealed in Masters of Sex has never surfaced before—and besides being a real contribution to the history of science, it’s a totally captivating read!”—Pepper Schwartz, Ph.D., Past President of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality, and author of Prime: Adventures and Advice About Sex, Love and the Sensual Years
“As recounted in Masters of Sex, a new biography of the pair by Thomas Maier (Basic Books), Masters' and Johnson's approach - and their willingness to risk social and professional stigma by doing such work - gave the world its first frank, authoritative portrait of human sexual behavior.” – The Boston Globe.
“Maier’s sedulously researched and deeply absorbing biography suggests that love is far more elusive than an orgasm … Set against a larger cultural landscape that spans the domesticated ‘50s and liberated ‘60s on up to the present, stopping on the way to evaluate the effect of Masters and Johnson’s work on everything from feminism to perfumes, Masters of Sex is a richly informed and elegantly organized account of the two people behind the logo that stood for new sexual horizons”. – Daphne Merkin in Tina Brown’s website “The Daily Beast.”
“The strangely chilling story of two sexual pioneers… Perhaps influenced by its steamy subject matter, Masters of Sex, Thomas Maier's new book about the couple's career, may strike some readers as unusually graphic for a biography, but this unsettling story of sex and science in theory and practice is ultimately more cautionary than titillating.” O – The Oprah Magazine.
“Absorbing …Masters of Sex is this spring's true must-read book for those looking to revisit the heady, early days of the sexual revolution.” – The American Prospect.
“As the story of Masters and Johnson makes clear, rescuing sex from the ancient mists of myth, mystery and religiosity left America a happier and healthier place. And yet Maier's book also suggests that our subsequent attempts to liberate sexual pleasure from the grip of fusty, old-fashioned love had much the opposite effect.” – Newsweek.
“There are plenty of fireworks here... An excellent writer and a top-notch reporter, Maier excels at providing intriguing details without veering into titillation, and the reader comes away with a great appreciation for the pioneering forthrightness of Masters and Johnson—especially considering it’s a field of study that still makes some uneasy.” – Penthouse.
“If there is a moral to this tale, it is perhaps that the human heart remains as much of a mystery as the sex organs once used to be.” – The Economist.
“Award-winning biographer Maier (Dr. Spock: An American Life) delivers the first in-depth look at a complex couple who helped revolutionize the study of human sexual response. Academics and amateur sexperts alike will rejoice.” – Library Journal.
“Masters of Sex is a terrific book about the unlikely couple who touched off the sexual revolution. More than a biography, this is an intimate history of sex in the twentieth-century.” -- Debby Applegate, Winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in Biography for The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher.
"The subject of this book--sex and love--should interest just about everyone. As a bonus, Thomas Maier is a very fine writer, an accomplished biographer, and an astute reporter. If you read only one biography this year, it should be this first-ever look at the secretive lives of Masters and Johnson." -- Nelson DeMille, bestselling author of "The Gold Coast "and "The Gate House"
"A well-written and insightful account of Masters and Johnson, who, in a clinical sense, probably knew more about sex and marital love than any other couple in America." -- Gay Talese, author of "Thy Neighbor's Wife "and "A Writer's Life"
“It’s hard to imagine any sex researcher or serious student of sexuality who wouldn’t profit from reading this book. The information revealed in Masters of Sex has never surfaced before—and besides being a real contribution to the history of science, it’s a totally captivating read!”—Pepper Schwartz, Ph.D., Past President of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality, and author of Prime: Adventures and Advice About Sex, Love and the Sensual Years
“As recounted in Masters of Sex, a new biography of the pair by Thomas Maier (Basic Books), Masters' and Johnson's approach - and their willingness to risk social and professional stigma by doing such work - gave the world its first frank, authoritative portrait of human sexual behavior.” – The Boston Globe.
