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Erica (Mann) Jong (born March 26, 1942, in New York City, New York) is an American author and educator. Jong graduated from Barnard College in 1963. She sometimes resides in Weston, Connecticut.
Career
Jong is best known for her first novel, Fear of Flying (published in 1973), which created a sensation with its frank treatment of a woman's sexual desires.
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, Austria, she says, "I am so frightened that my nipples would be standing up against the inside of my bra, if I was wearing a bra."
Personal life
Jong has been married four times; first to a college sweetheart; then to Allan Jong, a psychiatrist (these two liaisons are described in Fear of Flying); then to Jonathan Fast, a novelist and social work educator, and son of the novelist, Howard Fast (described in "How to Save Your Own Life" and "Parachutes and Kisses"); and currently to Ken Burrows, a New York divorce lawyer. Her daughter from her second marriage, Molly Jong-Fast, has published a novel ("Normal Girl") and a memoir ("The Sex Doctors in the Basement"). Jong is known to some for a brief sexual liaison with Martha Stewart's then-husband, publisher Andy Stewart. Jong describes it in her 2006 book, "Seducing the Demon," as a mistake.
Jong lived briefly in Heidelberg, Germany with her second husband, while he was stationed at an army base there, an experience she chronicled in her first novel, Fear of Flying. She was a frequent visitor to Venice, and wrote about that city in her novel, "Shylock's Daughter".
Views on 9/11
Jong has publicly questioned the official version of the 9/11 attacks.[http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0603/24/sbt.01.html She has made an appearance on Showbiz Tonight and more recently on Real Time with Bill Maher. Jong has openely expressed her support for Charlie Sheen in his 9/11-related interviews, calling him "a brave man."
Bibliography
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 (1987): formerly titled Serenissima
- Any Woman's Blues (1990)
- Inventing Memory (1997)
- Sappho's Leap (2003)
Non-fiction
- Witches (1981,1997,1999)
- Megan's Two Houses (1984,1996)
- The Devil at Large: Erica Jong on Henry Miller (1993)
- Fear of Fifty: A Midlife Memoir (1994)
- What Do Women Want? Bread Roses Sex Power (1998)
- Seducing the Demon : Writing for My Life (2006)
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)
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
See also
External links
- Official website
- What this woman wants - The Guardian, April 3, 1999.
- In-depth interview and profile.
- Audio interviews by Don Swaim
- The Bat Segundo Show #30 (podcast interview)
1942 births | Living people | Feminist writers | Alumnae of women's colleges
"Erica Jong"