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Erica Jong

File:Erica_Jong_-_1977.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

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Erica Jong

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Also known as Erica Mann Jong, Erica Mann

American novelist, poet, memoirist, critic

AI overview

Erica Jong is an American novelist, poet, memoirist, and critic known for her literary contributions across multiple genres. She is significant in American literature for her work in fiction, poetry, and memoir writing, as well as her critical commentary.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Born
1942
Works
144

Top works

  • Fear of Flying
  • Crazy Cock
  • How Do I Save My Own Life
  • Any Woman's Blues
  • Fear of Fifty

via Open Library + Wikidata

Music · MusicBrainz

Type
Person
Gender
Female
Origin
United States
Active from
1942-03-26

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners
600
Total plays
1,297

<a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Erica+Jong">Read more on Last.fm</a>

via Last.fm · Erica Jong

Quotes

  • I myself hate that old Hemingwayesque paradigm of the writer as prizefighter and I have tried hard to create an alternate one for myself. When Anne Sexton admonished me, "We are all writing God's poem," I took it to mean there should be no competition between writers because we are all involved in a common project, a common prayer. But to Gore's and Norman's generation, particularly those male writers who served in the second world war, the prizefighter paradigm remains.
  • I have had the experience of having my sister get up at a meeting at Columbia University, where these scholars from all over the world were anointing Fear of Flying as a classic. And my sister got up and said, "Erica Jong has ruined my life — with her books."
  • My advice to a young writer: Never give up. Read everything you can read — particularly the writers who move you deeply. Study how they do what they do. Read and read and read ... and write and write and write.
  • Underneath it all, you longed to be annihilated by love...
  • Each one an antidote to the one that went before. Each one a reaction, an about-face, a rebound.
  • The zipless fuck is absolutely pure. It is free of ulterior motives. There is no power game. The man is not "taking" and the woman is not "giving." No one is attempting to cuckold a husband or humiliate a wife. No one is trying to prove anything or get anything out of anyone. The zipless fuck is the purest thing there is. And it is rarer than the unicorn. And I have never had one.

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

~8 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Erica Jong (née Mann; born March 26, 1942) is an American novelist, satirist, and poet known particularly for her 1973 novel Fear of Flying. The book became famously controversial for its attitudes towards female sexuality and figured prominently in the development of second-wave feminism. The Washington Post said in 2013 that it had sold more than 20 million copies worldwide, while by 2022, The New York Times reported that worldwide sales of the book had increased to over 37 million copies.

Early life and education

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Erica Jong” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (4)