Gavin Arthur

Gavin Arthur, pen name of Chester Alan Arthur III (1901-1972), was an American astrologer and sexologist. He was a grandson of U.S. President Chester Alan Arthur (1829-1886). He was friends with the likes of Edward Carpenter, Havelock Ellis, Magnus Hirschfeld, Alfred Kinsey and a multitude of well-known writers, artists and anonymous interesting people of every gender, sexual orientation and social class.

In 1962, Arthur published The Circle of Sex, a book that analyzed human sexuality through the lens of yin-yang polarities. Rather than the linear scale developed by Alfred Kinsey, Arthur envisioned sexuality as a wheel with twelve orientations (six for each sex).

The twelve types corresponded to the 12 hours dial clock and Arthur illustrated each with an historical archetype: One o'clock, "Pioneer" type (3/4 heterogenic male); Two o'clock, "Caesar" type (ambigenic male); Three o'clock, "Dorian" type (3/4 homogenic male); Four o'clock, "Finocchio" type (homogenic male); Five o'clock, "Lady C" type (hyper-heterogenic female); Six o'clock, "Joan" type (heterogenic materfamilias female); Seven o'clock, "Clubwoman" type (3/4 heterogenic female); Eight o'clock, "Duchess" type (ambigenic female); Nine o'clock, "Lesbian" type (3/4 homogenic female); Ten o'clock, "Dyke" type (homogenic female); Eleven o'clock, "Don Juan" type (hyper-heterogenic male); and Twelve o'clock, "Darby" type (heterogenic paterfamilias male).

Gavin Arthur, bisexual himself, was said to have been intimate with Edward Carpenter and Neal Cassady. Arthur was also a friend to many of the beat generation, including Allen Ginsberg and Alan Watts, and was active in the early gay liberation movement.