An eminent British psychologist of the early 20th century. He published the landmark work Studies in the Psychology of Sex in seven volumes between 1897 and 1928 the final, complete edition was not published until 1936 as well as many other books and papers. His promotion of a more open attitude to sex and to sex education as well as support of women’s rights provoked fierce opposition. In the United States his major works on the psychology of sex could only be sold legally to members of the medical profession in 1935. In many university libraries, until recently, Ellis’s major works were kept under lock and key and were only available to medical faculty. In 1898 George Bed-borough, a bookseller, was prosecuted at the Old Bailey for the crime of having a copy of Ellis’s Sexual Inversion on his shelves. Sexual Inversion is a study of homosexuality with an emphasis on the need for society to be less condemnatory and more understanding.
The abuse that Ellis encountered on publication of his major work was not so much leveled at the probity of his science as at his effense against the puritanical sexual mores of his time, especially in the United States. The legal constraint was effectively a taboo, removing his work on sexual behavior and sexual education from the sight of the people for whom it was intended. To that extent, it placed him and his work on the fringes of legitimate science.