‘Makes an excellent case for Parrott as an unjustly forgotten historical figure.’—The New Yorker
‘Remind[s] us of the brazenly talented women sidelined by convention.’—New York Times
The riveting biography of Ursula Parrott—best-selling author, Hollywood screenwriter, and voice for the modern woman.
Credited with popularizing the label ‘ex-wife’ in 1929, Ursula Parrott wrote provocatively about divorcées, career women, single mothers, work-life balance, and a host of new challenges facing modern women. Her best sellers, Hollywood film deals, marriages and divorces, and run-ins with the law made her a household name. Part biography, part cultural history,
Becoming the Ex-Wife establishes Parrott’s rightful place in twentieth-century American culture, uncovering her neglected work and keen insights into American women’s lives during a period of immense social change.
Although she was frequently dismissed as a ‘woman’s writer, ‘ reading Parrott’s writing today makes it clear that she was a trenchant philosopher of modernity—her work was prescient, anticipating issues not widely raised until decades after her decline into obscurity. With elegant wit and a deft command of the archive, Marsha Gordon tells a timely story about the life of a woman on the front lines of a culture war that is still raging today.
قائمة المحتويات
List of Illustrations
A Note on Name Usage
Introduction: ‘Maxims in the Copybook of Modernism’
1 • The Limited Life of a Dorchester Girl
2 • At Radcliffe: ‘A Pushy Lace-Curtain Irish Girl from Dorchester’
3 • First Husband, Lindesay Parrott: ‘Strange Moments of Tenderness and Pretty Constant Dislike’
4 • Modern Parenting
5 • Greenwich Village: The Path to Becoming a ‘Self-Sufficient, Independent, Successful Manager of Her Own Life’
6 • Hugh O’Connor: High Felicity on the ‘Road of No Rules’
7 • New Freedoms in the ‘Era of the One-Night Stand’: The Ex-Wife Is Born
8 • Ursula Goes to Hollywood
9 • Second Husband, Charles Greenwood: ‘The Stupidest Thing I Ever Did in My Life’
10 • ‘Extravagant Hell’
11 • The Business of Being a Writer
12 • Third Husband, John Wildberg: The Faint Resemblance of Stability
13 • ‘The Monotony and Weariness of Living’
14 • Fourth Husband, Alfred Coster Schermerhorn: ‘Two Catastrophes Should Be Enough’
15 • Saving Private Bryan: The United States vs. Ursula Parrott
16 • Her ‘Breaks Went Bad’
17 • ‘Black Coffee, Scotch, and Excitement’
Afterword: Remembering a ‘Leftover Lady’
Acknowledgments
Chronology
Notes
Published Writings of Ursula Parrott
Bibliography
Index
عن المؤلف
Marsha Gordon is Professor of Film Studies at North Carolina State University, a former Fellow at the National Humanities Center, and the recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholar award. She is the author of numerous books and articles and codirector of several short documentaries.
المزيد من الكتب الإلكترونية من نفس المؤلف (المؤلفين) / محرر
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