Discovering Sex   Then, in 1938, a group of his students came to
him and asked questions about marriage. He was touched by their
innocence. At first he refrained from answering, fearing he knew
too little. Then he went out and read everything he could on the
subject and was appalled by the available material—in both
quantity and quality. Some of the students petitioned the
university to start a course on sexuality and marriage. From the
start it was Kinsey’s course. He was one of eight faculty
members who taught it, and he gave three of the basic lectures.
The course was a huge success. It soon became an obsession with
him. Clara Kinsey was known on occasion to tell friends. “I
hardly see him at night any more since he took up sex.”  When he
began his studies of human sexuality, one of his oldest friends,
Edward Anderson, by then the director of the Missouri Botanical
Garden in St. Louis, wrote him: “It was heartwarming to see you
settling down into what I sup pose will be your real life work.
One would never