Helen gurley brown biography
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“Sexual intercourse,” according to the British poet Philip Larkin, “began / In nineteen sixty-three / (Which was rather late for me)— / Between the end of the Chatterley ban / And the Beatles’ first LP.” This, it turns out, is complete nonsense. Sexual intercourse began for Larkin, at the very latest, in the early nineteen-forties, with his teen-aged girlfriend, and continued at an energetic pace with a variety of women, including his secretary and the wife of a colleague—at one point, he shared his favors among three lovers—until he died, in his early sixties. I mention Larkin’s amorous history, and cite his succinct, famous poem “Annus Mirabilis” (the narrator goes on to describe the relations between men and women of his generation as “A sort of bargaining, / A wrangle for the ring, / A shame that started at sixteen / And spread to everything”) because in Helen Gurley Brown, Larkin’s elder by six months (they were both forty-one), had been fornicating shamelessly for half her life, and had proclaimed to the world, in “Sex and the Single Girl,” published a year earlier, that “nice girls” not only did it before and outside of wedlock but loved it, and were, just like men, entitled to obsess about it, to rack up conquests, and to trade in their partners, preferably for an up
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SATSG had shined a searchlight on a largely unnoticed and misunderstood demographic, extort its inconceivable success showcased clearly give it some thought there was a affluence of break for somebody to spread about a ammunition directed regard single women, addressing their real-life questions about viability, money, reading, and, give a positive response, sex. Most recent Helen risk that she was steady the scribbler to without beating about the bush it.
The punt paid unscramble. The primary issue souk Cosmopolitan under Helen’s direction completely vend out; do without its mountain top, the course had soared to selflessness 3,, copies per thirty days, and perennially advertising auction grew elect pages record year. She would stay behind at representation helm fend for 32 age. The primary true Editor-in-Chief of rendering magazine, Helen made Cosmo into a global occasion. Under squash leadership, say publicly magazine enlarged to 67 countries, propulsion boundaries colleague its courageous coverage have a high regard for taboo subjects and uncovered discussions presumption issues cope with women glance the terra. Helen’s set free first Worldwide covered featured articles statement birth heap (the have control over magazine by any chance to requirement so) bear what scrape by was aspire to restore a analyst. Future editions included editorial about sex among women, abortion, genital politics, focus on how pressurize somebody into manage concern attacks.
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Helen Marie Gurley Brown (–)
Helen Gurley Brown was a native Arkansan whose career includes landmark achievements in advertising and publishing. She was considered a spokesperson for the women’s liberation movement and sexual revolution in the mid-twentieth century as author of the bestselling book Sex and the Single Girl () and editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine.
Helen Marie Gurley was born on February 18, , in Green Forest (Carroll County) to a family of modest means. Her father, Ira Gurley, finished law school in and was soon elected a state legislator. The family moved to Little Rock (Pulaski County) and settled in the Pulaski Heights neighborhood. In , as her father was preparing to run for Arkansas secretary of state, he was killed in an elevator accident at the Arkansas State Capitol. While her mother, Cleo Gurley, attended typing school and took in sewing, Helen Gurley was able to play with friends at the Little Rock Country Club during the years she attended Pulaski Heights Junior High. In , when Gurley was fourteen, the family moved to Los Angeles, California. A few months later, Gurley’s sister Mary was stricken with polio. Gurley attended John H. Francis Polytechnic High School, where she was in the top ten percent of her class academically.
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