Johnson, Virginia

Johnson, Virginia (b. Eshelman)

(1925– ) journalist, researcher, sexologist; born in Springfield, Mo. Educated at Washington University (St. Louis), she was a journalist and market researcher who dabbled in country music. In 1957 she joined Dr. William Masters' research group at Washington University School of Medicine and by 1959 she and Masters were founding the Masters and Johnson Institute to investigate the physiology of sexual intercourse and physiology. Their first popular publication, Human Sexual Response (1966), caused a major uproar with its explicit descriptions. She stayed on with Masters, helped operate their sexual therapy service, and married him in 1971. Later she and Masters published On Sex and Human Loving (with Robert Kolodny, 1986). Her marriage to Masters ended in 1992.