Helen Gurley Brown

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Helen Gurley Brown

Helen Gurley Brown in 1964
Born February 18, 1922 (1922-02-18) (age 89)
Green Forest, Arkansas[1]
Occupation International Editor, Cosmopolitan
Title International Editor, Cosmopolitan; Former editor-in-chief, U.S. Cosmopolitan
Spouse(s) David Brown
Ethnicity English-American
Notable credit(s) Editor-in-chief, Cosmopolitan

Helen Gurley Brown (born February 18, 1922 in Green Forest, Arkansas), is an author, publisher, and businesswoman. She was editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine for 32 years.[2]

Contents

[edit] Personal life and career

Brown was born to parents Cleo and Ira Marvin Gurley.[3] Her mother was born in Alpena, Arkansas and died in 1980.[3][4] Her father was once appointed Commissioner of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.[5] The family moved to Little Rock, Arkansas after Ira won an election to the Arkansas state legislature.[4] He died in an elevator accident on June 18, 1932.[6] In 1937, Brown, her sister Mary, and their mother moved to Los Angeles, California.[7] A few months after moving, Mary contracted polio.[7] While in California, Brown attended John H. Francis Polytechnic High School.[8]

After Brown's graduation, the family moved to Warm Springs, Georgia.[9] Brown attended one semester at Texas State College for Women and then moved back to California to attend Woodbury Business College.[9] She graduated in 1941.[10] In 1947, Cleo and Mary moved to Osage, Arkansas while Brown stayed in Los Angeles.[11]

After working at the William Morris Agency, Music Corporation of America, and Jaffe talent agencies she went to work for Foote, Cone & Belding advertising agency as a secretary.[12] Her employer recognized her writing skills and moved her to the copywriting department where she advanced rapidly to become one of the nation's highest paid ad copywriters in the early 1960s. In 1959 she married David Brown, who would become the producer of Jaws, The Sting, Cocoon, Driving Miss Daisy, and other motion pictures.

In 1962, at the age of 40, her bestselling book Sex and the Single Girl was published.[13] In 1965, she became editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan and reversed the fortunes of the failing magazine. During the decade of the 1960s she was an outspoken advocate of women's sexual freedom and sought to provide them with role-models and a guide in her magazine. She claimed that women could have it all, "love, sex, and money", a view that even preceding feminists such as Betty Friedan and Germaine Greer did not support at all and has been met with notable opposition by advocates of grass-roots devotion of women to family and marriage.[14] Due to her advocacy, glamorous, fashion-focused women were sometimes called "Cosmo Girls". Her work played a part in what is often called the sexual revolution.

In 1997, Brown was ousted from her role as the US editor of Cosmopolitan[15] and was replaced by Bonnie Fuller. When she left, Cosmopolitan ranked sixth at the newsstand, and for the 16th straight year, ranked first in bookstores on college campuses.[15] However, she stayed on at Hearst publishing and remains the international editor for all 59 international editions of Cosmo.[15]

In September, 2008, she was named the 13th most powerful American over the age of 80 by Slate magazine.[16]

After more than 50 years of marriage, her husband David Brown died at age 93 on February 1, 2010.[17][18]

Together with her husband David, Helen Gurley established the David and Helen Gurley Brown Institute for Media Innovation.[19] This institution will be housed at both the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and Stanford's Engineering School. Their $30 million donation to the two schools will be used to develop journalism in the context of new technologies.[19]

[edit] Awards

  • 1995: Henry Johnson Fisher Award from the Magazine Publishers of America
  • 1996: American Society of Magazine Editors' Hall of Fame Award

[edit] Works

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Scanlon 2009, p. 1.
  2. ^ Garner 2009.
  3. ^ a b Scanlon 2009, p. 2.
  4. ^ a b Scanlon 2009, p. 3.
  5. ^ Scanlon 2009, p. 6.
  6. ^ Scanlon 2009, p. 7.
  7. ^ a b Scanlon 2009, p. 12.
  8. ^ Scanlon 2009, p. 14.
  9. ^ a b Scanlon 2009, p. 17.
  10. ^ Scanlon 2009, p. 18.
  11. ^ Scanlon 2009, p. 22.
  12. ^ Scanlon 2009, p. 26.
  13. ^ Scanlon 2009, p. ix.
  14. ^ Cook, Peter S. (2004). "Feminism, childcare, and family mental health: have women been misled by equality feminism?". The Natural Child Project. http://www.naturalchild.com/peter_cook/feminism.html. Retrieved April 28, 2009. 
  15. ^ a b c Scanlon 2009, p. xiv.
  16. ^ "80 Over 80: The most powerful octogenarians in America". Slate. September 11, 2008. http://www.slate.com/id/2199926/. Retrieved April 22, 2009. 
  17. ^ Weber, Bruce (February 2, 2010). "David Brown, Film and Stage Producer, Dies at 93". The New York Times: p. A25. Archived from the original on February 2, 2010. http://www.webcitation.org/5nFbvnr14. Retrieved February 2, 2010. 
  18. ^ McLellan, Dennis (February 2, 2010). "David Brown dies at 93; producer of 'Jaws,' 'The Sting'". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on February 2, 2010. http://www.webcitation.org/5nFcIV1DQ. Retrieved February 2, 2010. 
  19. ^ a b "Cosmo editor ponies up $30 million for the future of news". CNET. January 30, 2012. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-57368618-52/cosmo-editor-ponies-up-$30-million-for-the-future-of-news/?tag=mncol;cnetRiver. Retrieved January 30, 2012. 

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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