Helen Gurley Brown
Helen Gurley Brown , maiden name: Helen Marie Gurley, (born February 18, 1922 in Green Forest , Arkansas , † August 13, 2012 in New York City ) was an American publisher and author .
Life
Gurley's parents were both from Arkansas, where his father, Ira Marvin Gurley, held the post of commissioner for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission , before moving the family to the state capital, Little Rock . There he was a member of the state parliament until his death in an elevator accident in 1932 . In 1937 Helen moved with her mother and sister to Los Angeles , California , where she graduated from high school.
Gurley completed her training in 1941 after a semester at the Texas State College for Women , today's Texas Woman's University in Denton , at Woodbury Business College , now Woodbury University in Burbank , California. In the following years she worked at the William Morris Agency , the Music Corporation of America and then as a secretary at the advertising agency Foote, Cone & Belding , where she was able to advance very quickly thanks to her skills and became one of the highest paid copywriters in the early 1960s has been. In 1959 she married the then journalist David Brown , who worked as a film producer in later years. B. of the film Jaws became famous.
Author and Editor-in-Chief
At the age of 40, Brown published her first book, Sex and the Single Girl , which became a success in many countries and topped the US bestseller lists for more than a year.
In 1965 Brown became editor-in-chief of the Cosmopolitan in New York. Her wealth of ideas and the ideas of sexual freedom she represented in the magazine, as well as her advocacy for the glamorous and fashion-conscious woman, brought the Cosmopolitan business success. She held the post of editor-in-chief until 1997 and continued to oversee the international editions in 59 countries until her death in 2012.
Brown's husband, David Brown, died in New York in 2010. Helen Gurley Brown died in Columbia University Hospital at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan after a brief illness. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg , the weekly Entertainment Weekly and others honored her with obituaries in which her importance for the image of women since the 1960s and for the press of the United States was highlighted.
Foundation, endowment
In early 2012, Brown used the couple's fortune to set up the David and Helen Gurley Brown Institute for Media Innovation with endowment capital of US $ 30 million. The institute at the Universities of Columbia University in New York City and Stanford University in Stanford is intended to develop journalism in conjunction with new technologies.
Publications
- 1962: Sex and the Single Girl .
- 1963: German: Sex and single girls . Decker, Schmiden near Stuttgart.
- 1966: German, revised, revised and improved: Decker, Schmiden near Stuttgart.
- 1965: Sex and the Office .
- 1965: sex in the office . Econ-Verlag, Düsseldorf / Vienna.
- 1969: Single Girl's Cookbook with drawings by Frank Daniel. Bernard Geis Associates, New York City.
- 1970: Sex and the New Single Girl .
- 1982: Having It All .
- 1993: The Late Show: A Semi Wild but Practical Guide for Women Over 50 .
- 1998: The Writer's Rules: The Power of Positive Prose - How to Create It and Get it Published .
- 2000: I'm Wild Again: Snippets from my Life and a Few Brazen Thoughts , St Martin's Press, New York City, ISBN 978-0-312251925 .
- 2004: Dear Pussycat: Mash Notes and Missives from the Desk of Cosmopolitan's Legendary Editor , St. Martin's Press, New York City, ISBN 0-312317573 .
literature
- Jennifer Scanlon / Nancy Toff (Eds.): Bad Girls Go Everywhere. The Life of Helen Gurley Brown. The Woman behind Cosmopolitan Magazine . Penguin, New York City 2010, ISBN 978-1-101-53222-5 .
Web links
- Helen Gurley Brown in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Literature by and about Helen Gurley Brown in the catalog of the German National Library
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Brown, Helen Gurley |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Helen Marie Gurley, maiden name |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American editor-in-chief and author |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 18, 1922 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Green Forest , Arkansas |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 13, 2012 |
| Place of death | New York City |