Enter Helen: The Invention of Helen Gurley Brown and the Rise of the Modern Single Woman

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Description

This female Mad Men-like story chronicles the legendary Cosmopolitan magazine editors rise to power as both a cultural icon and trailblazer who redefined what it means to be an American woman.

Engaging.... Nimble-footed.... Amusing....Throughout, Hauser weaves in passages connecting Brown to her contemporaries and the cultural landscape of the 1960s...[to] situate her life in the context of its times.New York Times Book Review

In the mid-Sixties, Helen Gurley Brown, author of the groundbreaking Sex and the Single Girl, took over the ailing Cosmopolitan magazine and revamped it into one of the most successful brands in the world. At a time when magazines taught housewives how to make the perfect casserole, Helen reimagined Cosmo and womanhood itself, championing the independent, ambitious single woman. Though she was married, to Hollywood producer David Brown, no one embodied the idea of the Cosmo Girl more than the Ozarks-born Helen, who willed, worked, andmaybeoccasionally slept her way to the top, eventually becoming one of the most influential media players in the world.

Drawing on new interviews with Helens friends and former colleagues as well as her personal letters, Enter Helen brings New York City vibrantly to life during the Sexual Revolution and the Womens Movement and features a cast of characters including Hugh Hefner, Nora Ephron, and Gloria Steinem. It is the cinematic story of an icon who bucked convention, defined her own destiny, and became a controversial model for modern feminism, laying the groundwork for television shows like Sex and the City and Girls.

Bad feminist or not, Helen Gurley Brown got people talkingabout sex, work, reproductive choices, and having it allforever changing the conversation.

Reviews

"Engaging... Nimble-footed... Amusing...Throughout, Hauser weaves in passages connecting Brown to her contemporaries and the cultural landscape of the 1960s...[to] situate her life in the context of its times." -- New York Times Book Review "Brown deserves the biography that Brooke Hauser has written, Enter Helen. It is entertaining, thoughtfully researched and - the ultimate encomium where HGB was concerned - fun." -- Washington Post "Legendary, inimitable Cosmopolitan editor and Sex and the Single Girl author Helen Gurley Brown comes alive in Hauser's hands." -- Entertainment Weekly, "Must List" "Encapsulates the colorful life of a woman who rocked minis well into her eighties." -- Los Angeles Times "Excellent." -- The Week "A must-read piece of proto-feminist history." -- Lenny Letter "Hauser deftly pulls out fascinating details... Some truly juicy moments... Hauser dives into her youth and her early career in advertising far more than these years have been explored previously, setting the stage much more firmly for understanding how Brown accomplished all that she did." -- Jezebel "A compelling drama about a determined woman and Cosmopolitan editor, the original Sex and the City gal Helen Gurley Brown, which reveals how powerful (and threatening) a female in command of her pocketbook, sexuality, and career can really be." -- Lily Koppel, New York Times bestselling author of The Astronaut Wives Club and The Red Leather Diary "Hauser dives deep into the life of our former HBIC and uncovers what drove her to revolutionize the way we live and date today. HGB, we TY." -- Cosmopolitan "As Brooke Hauser's lively biography...reveals, [Helen Gurley Brown] was as comfortable championing single 'career girls' as she was giving them tips on how to catch a man-and her own contradictory, have-it-all life proved to be as compelling as the era she helped define." -- OK Magazine "Reading Enter Helen was like being at a party, and I'm sorry it had to end. With this sexy, riveting book, Brooke Hauser takes us on a joy ride through the 1960s and '70s of Helen Gurley Brown's life. Engaging and important." -- Linda Wells, Founding Editor-in-Chief of Allure "A riveting...complex biography... Such a great read. Enter Helen is neither hagiographic nor damning." -- Washington Independent Review of Books "Journalist Brooke Hauser's breezy and entertaining new biography...chronicles Brown's remarkable story, which is also a social history of two decades-the sixties and the seventies-whose cultural impact remains significant." -- Acculturated.com "It is to be hoped that Brooke Hauser's excellent biography and a film in the works will give Sex and the Single Girl another lease on life." -- New York Journal of Books "An engaging, juicy, and edifying read." -- New York magazine

Author Bio

Brooke Hauser has written for The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Allure, among other publications. She is the author of THE NEW KIDS: BIG DREAMS and BRAVE JOURNEYS AT A HIGH SCHOOL FOR IMMIGRANT TEENS, a winner of the American Library Associations 2012 Alex Award.