Not Pretty Enough: The Unlikely Triumph of Helen Gurley Brown
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When Helen Gurley Brown published Sex and the Single Girl in 1962, it sold more than two million copies in just three weeks, presaging the self-help boom and helping to usher in the unapologetic self-affirmation of second wave feminism. Brown declared that it was okay, even imperative, to enjoy sex outside of marriage; that equal rights for women should extend to the bedroom; that meaningful work outside the home was essential for a woman's security and self-esteem. The book catapulted Brown into national renown, cementing her status as a complex and divisive feminist personality. And the ripple effects of her outspokenness about sex and her emphasis on friendships between women can still be seen today, on TV shows like Sex and the City and Girls, and in the magazine world as well.When she died in 2012, her obituary appeared on the front page of The New York Times, which noted that "the look of women's magazines today . . . is due in no small part to her influence." She may not always have been loved—but she was always talked about.
Brown's life story—a classic American rags-to-riches tale—is just as juicy as her controversial books. In this wonderful new biography, the writer and reporter Gerri Hirshey traces Brown's path from deep in the Arkansas Ozarks to her wild single years in Los Angeles, from the New York magazine world to her Hollywood adventures with her film producer husband. Along the way she became the highest-paid female ad copywriter on the West Coast, and transformed Hearst's failing literary magazine, Cosmopolitan, into the female-oriented global juggernaut it is today. Full of firsthand accounts of Brown from some of her closest friends, including Liz Smith, Gloria Vanderbilt, Barbara Walters, and more, as well as those whose paths she brushed—her 1939 prom date, a sorority sister from business school, Cosmo cover girls like Beverly Johnson and Brooke Shields—and writing from the woman herself, Not Pretty Enough is a vital biography that shines new light on the life of one of the most incomparable and indelible women of the twentieth century.
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Gerri Hirshey. (2016). Not Pretty Enough: The Unlikely Triumph of Helen Gurley Brown. Unabridged Books on Tape.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)Gerri Hirshey. 2016. Not Pretty Enough: The Unlikely Triumph of Helen Gurley Brown. Books on Tape.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)Gerri Hirshey, Not Pretty Enough: The Unlikely Triumph of Helen Gurley Brown. Books on Tape, 2016.
MLA Citation (style guide)Gerri Hirshey. Not Pretty Enough: The Unlikely Triumph of Helen Gurley Brown. Unabridged Books on Tape, 2016.
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- bioText: For more than thirty years, Gerri Hirshey has worked as a features writer, columnist, reporter, and essayist at The Washington Post, The New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, GQ, Esquire, and New York, among others. She has also written for O, The Oprah Magazine, More,The Nation, Food & Wine, Ladies' Home Journal, and Parade. Beginning in the 1980s, Hirshey was the first female contributing editor toRolling Stone—she wrote celebrity profiles of numerous artists, musicians, actors, authors, and fashion designers. She is the author of several books, including Nowhere to Run: The Story of Soul Music, which is now in its seventh reprint incarnation, and We Gotta Get Outta This Place: The True, Tough Story of Women in Rock. Hirshey lives in New York City with her husband, Mark Zwonitzer, a writer and documentary filmmaker; they have two young adult children.
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- A bold and deeply researched biography of a complicated cultural icon
When Helen Gurley Brown published Sex and the Single Girl in 1962, it sold more than two million copies in just three weeks, presaging the self-help boom and helping to usher in the unapologetic self-affirmation of second wave feminism. Brown declared that it was okay, even imperative, to enjoy sex outside of marriage; that equal rights for women should extend to the bedroom; that meaningful work outside the home was essential for a woman's security and self-esteem. The book catapulted Brown into national renown, cementing her status as a complex and divisive feminist personality. And the ripple effects of her outspokenness about sex and her emphasis on friendships between women can still be seen today, on TV shows like Sex and the City and Girls, and in the magazine world as well.When she died in 2012, her obituary appeared on the front page of The New York Times, which noted that "the look of women's magazines today . . . is due in no small part to her influence." She may not always have been loved—but she was always talked about.
Brown's life story—a classic American rags-to-riches tale—is just as juicy as her controversial books. In this wonderful new biography, the writer and reporter Gerri Hirshey traces Brown's path from deep in the Arkansas Ozarks to her wild single years in Los Angeles, from the New York magazine world to her Hollywood adventures with her film producer husband. Along the way she became the highest-paid female ad copywriter on the West Coast, and transformed Hearst's failing literary magazine, Cosmopolitan, into the female-oriented global juggernaut it is today. Full of firsthand accounts of Brown from some of her closest friends, including Liz Smith, Gloria Vanderbilt, Barbara Walters, and more, as well as those whose paths she brushed—her 1939 prom date, a sorority sister from business school, Cosmo cover girls like Beverly Johnson and Brooke Shields—and writing from the woman herself, Not Pretty Enough is a vital biography that shines new light on the life of one of the most incomparable and indelible women of the twentieth century. - reviews
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- content: Helen Gurley Brown, author of SEX AND THE SINGLE GIRL, and legendary editor of COSMOPOLITAN magazine, was a singular woman who really did change the world. How she did it, and the prices she paid as well as the rewards she reaped, make for a truly fascinating listen. The Hearst Corporation apparently has a stranglehold on Brown's archives at Smith College, though she meant them to be available to researchers. Gerri Hirshey has found ingenious ways around their self-serving obstructions; she tells a full, complex story of a unique personality and her mid-century world. Eliza Foss is perfectly equipped to narrate this juicy saga with warmth, sympathy, and enthusiasm. Her attention never flags, and the only unwelcome distractions in this excellent production are audible edits. B.G. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine
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May 23, 2016
Reviewed by Mary Kay Blakely
Hirshey’s compelling biography of Helen Gurley Brown chronicles a peculiarly American sexual history, beginning with the breadwinner-housewife marriages that birthed the baby boom generation. So it’s more than a little amazing that when in 1964 Brown published Sex and the Single Girl—in which she acknowledged having 178 affairs before marrying David Brown at age 37—she didn’t think encouraging unmarried women to enjoy sex was radical or revolutionary. She described the book as mainly practical, sharing what she and her girlfriends had been talking about for nearly two decades. If a woman had challenging work and great sex, children and husbands could come later.
This 500-page biography, thoroughly researched and reported, covers Helen’s childhood in rural Arkansas, sometimes inflating difficulties common to Depression-era families. Brown’s mother, Cleo, made thoughtless comments that damaged her self-confidence. (Didn’t all mothers of her generation do that?) A fatal elevator accident killed her father, leaving his 10-year-old daughter with “daddy issues” for life. Brown’s older sister, Mary, contracted polio and lost the ability to walk.
Those childhood difficulties may or may not have triggered the neuroses Brown battled throughout life. She sought psychiatric help for depression at age 22 and financial insecurity plagued her.
Weight preoccupations caused other neurotic behavior. She exercised fanatically at home and at the office, where she once stripped down to her underwear to work out in the stairwell.
While Hirshey offers copious evidence of Brown’s eccentricities, she also documents truly admirable traits. A solid work ethic powered her through 17 low-wage clerical jobs before she was finally promoted to a copy writing position at the ad agency Foote, Cone & Belding. As editor of Cosmopolitan, she worked 70–80 hours per week. An exacting perfectionist, she was admired by her staff as a fair and thoughtful boss with business acumen learned on the job: she managed a tight budget, repackaged book chapters into articles, expanded ads, and increased circulation. She lived leanly and sent a quarter of her monthly salary home to her difficult mother and paralyzed sister.
Brown’s compete makeover of Cosmopolitan overloaded the magazine with self-help articles about sex, beauty, fashion, girlfriends, jobs, money, and pleasing your man. She drove most of her writers bonkers at least once (myself included), rewriting copy that might make her “girls” mad, guilty, sad, wounded, or insulted. She made some tremendous blunders (refusing to examine AIDS and the need for safe sex) and ignored important issues (both abortion and birth control were illegal in some states), exempting herself from controversy because she was “a pragmatist, not an activist.” But, as Hirshey concludes, she ruled with naïveté and sincerity that were impossible to fake. (July)
Mary Kay Blakely is a professor of magazine journalism at the Missouri School of Journalism and coeditor of Words Matter: Writing to Make a Difference (Univ. of Missouri, Apr.).
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