Erica Jong

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Erica Jong, née Mann, born on March 26, 1942, in New York City, is an American author and teacher.

Contents

[edit] Career

A 1963 graduate of Barnard College, and with an M.A. in 18th century English Literature from Columbia University (1965), Jong is best known for her first novel, Fear of Flying (1973), which created a sensation with its frank treatment of a woman's sexual desires. But although it contains many sexual elements, the book is mainly the account of a young, hypersensitive woman, in her late twenties, trying to find who she is and where she is going. It contains many psychological, humorous, descriptive elements, and rich cultural and literary references. The book tries to answer the many conflicts arising in women in today's world, of womanhood, femininity, love, one's quest for freedom and purpose.

Jong wrote Fear of Flying in the first person, and her main character suffers from the fear of flying in more than one way, including the literal one. As her airline flight is taking off from New York on its way to Vienna, she says, "My fingers (and toes) turn to ice, my stomach leaps upward into my rib cage, the temperature in the tip of my nose drops to the same level as the temperature in my fingers, my nipples stand up and salute the inside of my bra (or in this case, dress--since I'm not wearing a bra)..." She created a new type of heroine, one who used an affair as a means to self-discovery, as opposed to traditional narratives in which affairs have often led to disaster.[citation needed]

[edit] Personal life

Jong was born and grew up in New York City. She is the middle daughter of Seymour Mann (né Nathan Weisman, died 2004), a drummer turned businessman of Polish Jewish ancestry who owned a gifts and home accessories company [2] known as "one of the world's most acclaimed makers of collectible porcelain dolls". [3] Born in England of a Russian immigrant family, her mother, Eda Mirsky (born 1911), was a painter and textile designer who also designed dolls for her husband's company.[1] Jong has an elder sister, Suzanna, who married Lebanese businessman Arthur Daou, and a younger sister, Claudia, a social worker who married Gideon S. Oberweger (the chief executive officer of Seymour Mann Inc.). Among her nephews is Peter Daou, who writes "The Daou Report" for salon.com and was one-half of the dance-music group The Daou.

Jong has been married four times. Her first two marriages, to college sweetheart Michael Werthman and to Allan Jong, a Chinese-American psychiatrist, share many similarities to those of the narrator described in Fear of Flying.[citation needed] Her third husband was Jonathan Fast, a novelist and social work educator, and son of novelist Howard Fast (this marriage was described in How to Save Your Own Life and Parachutes and Kisses). Her daughter from her third marriage, Molly Jong-Fast, has published a novel (Normal Girl) and a memoir (Girl [Maladjusted]). Jong-Fast's writing speaks of the emptiness she encountered in trying to live out the sexual liberties lauded in her mother's work. Jong-Fast is working on her third book, a novel (The Social Climber's Handbook).[citation needed]

Jong is now married to Ken Burrows, a New York divorce lawyer. In the late 1990s Jong wrote an article about her fourth marriage in the magazine Talk. Since she and her prospective husband knew much about the hazards of marriage, they drew up a prenuptial agreement. After ten years, they noticed that they had never taken it out of the drawer where it had resided since its signing. She and her husband decided that it was no longer needed, so they ceremonially burned it. This act has become a tradition in some circles.[citation needed]

Jong lived for three years, 1966-69, in Heidelberg, Germany, with her second husband, while he was stationed at an army base there. She was a frequent visitor to Venice, and wrote about that city in her novel, Shylock's Daughter. Jong was mentioned in the Bob Dylan song "Highlands".

In 2007, her literary archive was acquired by Columbia University in New York City.

[edit] Views on current events

[edit] September 11, 2001

Jong has publicly questioned the official version of the September 11, 2001 attacks. [4] She has made an appearance on Showbiz Tonight and more recently on Real Time with Bill Maher. Jong has openly expressed her support for Charlie Sheen in his 9/11-related interviews, calling him "a brave man." (See 9/11 conspiracy theories.)

[edit] 2008 Presidential Election

In an interview published in an Italian newspaper[2], Jong says her fear that Obama might lose the election has developed into an "obsession. A paralyzing terror. An anxious fever that keeps you awake at night." "If Obama loses it will spark the second American Civil War. Blood will run in the streets, believe me. And it's not a coincidence that President Bush recalled soldiers from Iraq for Dick Cheney to lead against American citizens in the streets." [3]

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Fiction

  • Fear of Flying (novel) (1973)
  • How to Save Your Own Life (1977)
  • Fanny, Being the True History of the Adventures of Fanny Hackabout-Jones (1980) (a retelling of 'Fanny Hill')
  • Megan's Book of Divorce: a kid's book for adults; as told to Erica Jong; illustrated by Freya Tanz. New York: New American Library (1984)
  • Megan's Two Houses: a story of adjustment; illustrated by Freya Tanz (1984; West Hollywood, CA: Dove Kids, 1996)
  • Parachutes & Kisses. New York: New American Library (1984) (UK ed. as Parachutes and Kisses: London: Granada, 1984.)[4]
  • Shylock's Daughter (1987): formerly titled Serenissima
  • Any Woman's Blues (1990)
  • Inventing Memory (1997)
  • Sappho's Leap (2003)

[edit] Non-fiction

[edit] Poetry

  • Fruits & Vegetables. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston (1971); London : Secker and Warburg, 1973
  • Half-Lives (1973)
  • Loveroot (1975)
  • At the Edge of the Body (1979)
  • Ordinary Miracles (1983)
  • Becoming Light: Poems; new and selected. New York: HarperCollins (1991) (Includes poems written in Jong's teens and 20s as well as selections from her previous books and new poems.)

[edit] Awards

  • Poetry Magazine's Bess Hokin Prize (1971)
  • Sigmund Freud Award For Literature (1975)
  • United Nations Award For Excellence In Literature (1998)
  • Deauville Award For Literary Excellence In France

[edit] References

  1. ^ As her granddaughter Molly Jong-Fast has written in her memoir, Read from Book, "Grandma Eda painted flowers and children. Grandma’s flower paintings were filled with lavish colors, sensuous shapes, and the hand of her abused housekeeper, who’d been holding the flowers since early the day before. Grandma’s flower paintings were the stuff of midwestern hotel room walls. But Grandma’s portraits of her children and grandchildren seemed to express something more than just a love of flowers or housekeepers: Grandma’s paintings of her family highlighted her distaste for motherhood". See: [1]
  2. ^ «Da Follett a Jane Fonda i liberal americani tutti in ansia per Obama», published October 29, 2008, Corriere della Sera
  3. ^ Erica Jong Tells Italians Obama Loss 'Will Spark the Second American Civil War. Blood Will Run in the Streets', published October 30, 2008 in the New York Observer
  4. ^ "Parachutes & Kisses". Copac. http://copac.ac.uk/search?&au=jong&ti=Parachutes+%26+Kisses&sort-order=ti%2C%2Ddate. Retrieved 2009-10-20. 

[edit] External links

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