10-10-2000

ERICA JONG  

(1942 -       ) 

BIOGRAPHY

Erica Jong, poet, novelist and essayist, is best known for her six best-selling novels, Fear of Flying (12 1/2 million copies in print), How to Save Your Own Life, Fanny: Being the True History of the Adventures of Fanny Hackabout-Jones, Parachutes & Kisses, Shylock 's Daughter (formerly published as Serenissima) and Any Woman 's Blues.

What is less well known is that Ms. Jong began her literary life as a poet and has published six award-winning collections of poetry -- Fruits and Vegetables, Half-Lives, Loveroot, At the Edge of the Body, Ordinary Miracles, and Becoming Light: Poems New and Selected. She has been awarded the prestigious Bess Hokin Prize of Poetry (also won by Sylvia Plath), the Borestone Mountain Award for Poetry, and many others. In 1981, she published Witches, a perennial back-list favorite, which tells the story of the witch in prose and poetry. Megan 's Two Houses, her first children's book, a story to help parents and children deal with divorce, is just out from Dove Kids.

In 1993, The Devil at Large: Erica Jong on Henry Miller (Random House and Grove Press), appeared. It is a memoir about Jong's friendship with the author of Tropic of Cancer and a study of his impact on contemporary literature.

Erica Jong's work is translated into twenty-seven languages and has been awarded the Premio Internationale Sigmund Freud in Italy and the United Nations Award of Excellence. Barnard College named her its Woman of Achievement in 1987. She served as President of the Authors Guild of the U. S. from 1991 to 1993. Known for her commitment to women's rights, authors' rights and free expression, Ms. Jong is a frequent lecturer in the U. S and abroad.

Ms. Jong's Fear of Fifty (HarperCollinsPublishers ), a blistering, funny mid-life memoir which has been a major worldwide bestseller, was published in 1994. Ms. Jong has just completed her latest book, Inventing Memory: A Novel of Mothers and Daughters. A four- generational story told from the point of view of four women whose lives span the twentieth century, it is due to be published in July, 1997 by HarperCollinsPublishers.

Visit Erica Jong's website at http://www.ericajong.com

 The Works of Erica Jong

  Fiction

Fear of Flying (1973)
How to Save Your Own Life (1977)
Fanny, Being the True History of the Adventures
     of Fanny Hackabout-Jones (1980)
Parachutes & Kisses (1984)
Shylock's Daughter (formerly Serenissima) (1987)
Any Woman's Blues (1990)
Fear of Fifty (1994)
Inventing Memory (1997)

Poetry

Fruits & Vegetables (1971, 1997)
Half-Lives (1973)
Loveroot (1975)
At the Edge of the Body (1979)
Ordinary Miracles (1983)
Becoming Light: New and Selected (1991)

 Other Works

Witches (1981, 1997)
Megan's Two Houses (1984, 1996)
The Devil at Large: Erica Jong on Henry Miller (1993)
What Do Women Want? Bread Roses Sex Power (1998)

 QUOTES

It is for this, partly, that I write. How can I know what I think unless I see what I write.

Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads.

No one ever found wisdom without also being a fool. Writers, alas, have to be fools in public, while the rest of the human race can cover its tracks.

I went for years not finishing anything. Because, of course, when you finish something you can be judged . . . I had poems which were re-written so many times I suspect it was just a way of avoiding sending them out.

Growing up female in America. What a liability! You grew up with your ears full of cosmetic ads, love songs, advice columns, whoreoscopes, Hollywood gossip, and moral dilemmas on the level of TV soap operas.

Ambivalence is a wonderful tune to dance to. It has a rhythm all its own.

And the trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more.

Bigamy is having one husband too many. Monogamy is the same.

Fame means millions of people have the wrong idea of who you are.

Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't.

Take your life in your own hands and what happens? A terrible thing: no one to blame.

Men have always detested women's gossip because they suspect the truth: their measurements are being taken and compared.

You see an awful lot of smart guys with dumb women, but you hardly ever see a smart woman with a dumb guy.

Do you want me to tell you something really subversive? Love is everything it's cracked up to be.

That's why people are so cynical about it.It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more.

Friends love misery, in fact. Sometimes, especially if we are too lucky or too successful or too pretty, our misery is the only thing that endears us to our friends.

Jealousy is all the fun you think they had.