A frank, honest, and insightful look into the lives of women over fifty. The Second Half explores, in photographic portraits and interviews, how the second half of life is experienced by women from many different cultures. From a French actress to a British novelist, from an Algerian nomad to a Saudi Arabian doctor, and an American politician, Ellen Warner traveled all over the world to interview women about their lives. She asked them what they learned in the first half that was helpful in the second, and what advice they would give to younger women. Their revealing and inspiring stories are enlightening for all readers, and are illustrated by Warner's stunning portraits which tell their own story.

The book begins with a question: Why Henry Miller? "Miller remains among the most misunderstood of writers - seen either as a pornographer or a guru, a sexual enslaver or a sexual liberator, a prophet or a pervert. All the questions his life and oeuvre raise about the role of the writer in society, the impact of books on sexual politics, the impact of sexual politics on books, the threat of censorship to free speech and written expression are, unfortunately, as fresh today as they ever were". Part biography, part memoir, part critical study, part exploration of sexual politics in our time, The Devil at Large is an event: a book that promises to rescue Miller from the facile charges of misogyny, anti-Semitism, and titillation that have been lobbed at him over the years, and brilliantly captures the exuberance, audacity, and energy that defined his life and art. More than that, it is a reunion between a young writer and her mentor. In 1974, while Fear of Flying was still a relatively obscure first novel, Erica Jong received an enthusiastic fan letter from Henry Miller, then an old man of eighty-three. Miller credited himself with "discovering" Jong, and his faithful correspondence guided her through a year of enormous change. The two writers - chastised and celebrated for their lusty prose, accused of conflating autobiography with fiction in their respective generations - found they were kindred spirits, and began a friendship that would last until Miller's death in 1980. "Make it all up!" was Miller's appeal to Jong to become his biographer. But in reexamining Miller, Jong has not had to fictionalize. She has imparted a deeper understanding of a life whose dramatic particulars have longsince been mythologized, dramatized, and cannibalized by those in search of a lusty life story. Jong puts the works, the letters, the loves through a prism that clarifies the creative impulse, making this slim book a quintessential chronicle of a writer's life and a mirror of our own times. "Always the flesh and the vision together", Anais Nin said of Miller. The Devil at Large asks its readers to look anew at these elements and come to a new appreciation of a twentieth-century visionary and prophet.

The 30th Anniversary special!

Originally published in 1973, the ground-breaking, uninhibited story of Isadora Wing and her desire to fly free caused a national sensation—and sold more than twelve million copies. Now, after thirty years, the iconic novel still stands as a timeless tale of self-discovery, liberation, and womanhood.

'I loved Fear of Dying. I found it irreverent, funny, tender and very wise and it made me feel more alive' RACHEL JOYCE, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry Vanessa Wonderman is smart, sexy - and sixty. After a lifetime of crazy families, New York high society and playing a soap opera archvillain bitch, she's not ready to give up yet.But life's not so carefree any more. Her parents are dying, her husband's in hospital and her wild-child daughter is pregnant. So when she signs up to a casual encounters site, she's thinking of leaving her wifelife behind - at least for a little bit. However, the most painful parts of your past always have away of surprising you. Will she learn in time how to live, how to love, how to be fearless?

"I need a little sugar in my bowl, I need a little hot dog, on my roll I can stand a bit of loving, oh so bad, I feel so funny, I feel so sad". (Bessie Smith). When it comes to sex, what do women want? In this eye-opening and courageous collection, Erica Jong reveals that every woman has her own answer. Susan Cheever talks about the excruciating hazards of casual sex, while Gail Collins recounts her Catholic upbringing in Cincinnati and the nuns who passionately forbade her from having carnal relations. In "Everything Must Go", Jennifer Weiner explores how, in love, the body can play just as big a role as the heart. The octogenarians in Karen Abbott's sharp-eyed piece possess a passion that could give Betty White a run for her money. Molly Jong-Fast reflects on her unconventional upbringing and why a whole generation of young women have rejected free love in favor of Bugaboo strollers and Mommy-and-me yoga. Sex, it turns out, can be as fleeting, heavy, mundane, and intense as the rest of life. Indeed, Jong states in her powerful introduction the truth is-sex is life. Contributors: Karen Abbott, Elisas Albert, J. A. K. Andres, Susie Bright, Susan Cheever, Gail Collins, rosemary Daniell, Eve Ensler, Molly Jong-Fast, Susan Kinsolving, Julie Klam, Jean Hanff Korelitz, Min Jin Lee, Ariel Levy, Margaret Magowan, Marisa Acocella Marchetto, Daphne Merkin, Honor Moore, Meghan O'Rourke, Anne Roiphe, Linda Gray Sexton, Liz Smith, Jann Turner, Barbara Victor, Rebecca Walker, Jennifer Weiner, Fay Weldon, and Jessica Winter.

Married (again) and divorced (again), Isadora Wing is a single parent with an adorable daughter, an irritating ex-husband, and a startling assortment of suitors: an unorthodox rabbi, a poetic disc jockey, the son of a famous sex therapist, and WASPily handsomest of all: Berkeley Sproul III. Isadora and Berkeley meet at a health club, and he's fourteen years her junior. Of course their affair is tortuous and sexy, but is it love? Or does the stud just want a free trip to Venice, compliments of a famous author? Either way, Erica Jong wrote this romance with "a mixture of eloquence and savage wit as good as anything she has ever written," said The Wall Street Journal.

The modern classic that changed the way we thought about sex 'Bigamy is having one husband too many. Monogamy is the same' - Anonymous (a woman) Compulsive daydreamer Isadora Wing has come to a crossroads. Five years of marriage have made her itchy - itchy for men, and itchy for solitude. Ditching her second husband during a work conference in Vienna she decides to cut and run, criss-crossing her way across Europe in search of the perfect no-strings-attached tryst - and she won't let a little thing like a fear of flying get in her way. Witty, fearless and exuberant, Fear of Flying remains as sensational today as when it was first published.

Career, baby and a gloriously liberated love life; suddenly single, uninhibited Isadora is besieged by more suitors than she can keep track of: an Orthodox rabbi, a poetic DJ, the son of a famous sex therapist and, finally, Bean, the demonic-Byronic lover she's searched for all her life.

An unconventional love story that broadened the scope of romantic fiction, Jane Eyre is ultimately the tale of one woman's fight to claim her independence and self-respect in a society that has no place for her. Revised reissue.

Erica Jong's memoir-a national bestseller-was probably the most wildly reviewed book of 2006. Critics called it everything from "brutally funny," "risqu? and wonderfully unrepentant," and "rowdy, self-deprecating, and endearing" to "a car wreck."* Throughout her book tour, Jong was unflappably funny, and responded to her critics with a hilarious essay on NPR's "All Things Considered," which is included in this paperback edition. In addition to prominent review and feature coverage, Jong was a guest on "Today" and "Real Time with Bill Maher." Even Rush Limbaugh flirted with Jong on his radio program: "I think she wants me. I think she's fantasizing about me." Love her, hate her, Jong still knows how to seduce the country and, most important, keep the pages turning.

Erica Jong's two rules of writing are "never cut funny" and "keep the pages turning." And Jong delivers in these twenty-six essays, coupling frank and risquA1/2 stories about her own life with provocative pieces on her passion for politics, literature, Italy, and-yes-sex. Originally published in 1998, this updated edition features four new essays. "What Do Women Want?" offers a startlingly original look at where women are-and where they need to be in the twenty-first century: Are women better off today than they were twenty-five years ago? Has burning pre-nup agreements become the new peak of romance? Why do our greatest women writers too often get dissed and overlooked? Why do powerful women scare men? And who is the perfect man? How does the mother-daughter relationship influence cycles of feminism and backlash? Will Hillary become president? What is sexy?

"Any Woman's Blues," first published in 1990, is a tale of addiction and narcissism-the twin obsessions of ourage. World-famous folk singer Leila Sand emerged from the sixties and seventies with addictions to drugs and booze. Leila's latest addiction is to a younger man who leaves her sexually ecstatic but emotionally bereft. The orgasmic frenzies trump the betrayals, so she keeps coming back for more. Eventually, Leila frees herself by learning the rules of love, the Twelve Steps, and the Key to Serenity in an odyssey that takes her from AA meetings to dens of sin, parties with "names" worth dropping, and erotic gondola rides.

A publishing event, a real-life novel, "Fear of Fifty" is the true story of the woman who 20 years ago showed her generation how to soar in "Fear of Flying" and now looks back -- and ahead -- to assess the costs, the rewards and the meaning of the journey.

Opening on her fiftieth birthday, Jong's midlife memoir reads like fast-paced fiction as it flashes back and forth in time to tell at last the truths at the heart of her novels. Poet, novelist, essayist, Jong has forged one of the most visible and volatile careers in American letters, and as a charter member of what she calls the "whiplash generation, " she has had a front seat on the roller coaster American women have been riding for the past decades. Raised to be Doris Day, growing up wanting to be Gloria Steinem, now rearing daughters in the age of Princess Di and Madonna, today's women have had their expectations raised and dashed and raised and dashed again, as they've watched themselves go in and out of style like hemlines. Now, as she and her contemporaries look for answers to the second half of their lives, Jong offers powerful, provocative insights into sex, marriage and aging; feminism -- past, present and future; the writing life; motherhood and family; identity and love, loyalty and loss, drawn through the brilliant prism of her own experience.

In chapters such as "Fear of Fifty, " "The Mad Lesbian in the Attic, " "How I Got to Be the Second Sex, " "How I Got to Be Jewish, " "Fear of Fame, " "Seducing the Muse, " "Dona Juana Gets Smart, " "Becoming Venetian" and "How to Get Married, "

Erica Jong--like Isadora Wing, her fictional doppelganger--was rich and famous, brainy and beautiful, and soaring high with erotica and marijuana in 1977, the year this book was first published. Erica/Isadora are the perfect literary and libidinous guides for those readers who want to learn about-or just be reminded of-the sheer hedonistic innocence of the time. "How to Save Your Own Life" was praised by "People" for being "shameless, sex-saturated and a joy," and hailed by Anthony Burgess as one of the ninety-nine best novels published in English since 1939.

"Sappho's Leap" is a journey back 2,600 years to inhabit the mind of the greatest love poet the world has ever known. At the age of fourteen, Sappho is seduced by the beautiful poet Alcaeus, plots with him to overthrow the dictator of their island, and is caught and married off to a repellent older man in hopes that matrimony will keep her out of trouble. Instead, it starts her off on a series of amorous adventures with both men and women, taking her from Delphi to Egypt, and even to the Land of the Amazons and the shadowy realm of Hades. Erica Jong always our keenest-eyed chronicler of the wonders and vagaries of sex and love has found the perfect subject for a witty and sensuous tale of a passionate woman ahead of her time. A generation of readers who have been moved to laughter and recognition by Jong's heroines will be enchanted anew by her re-creation of the immortal poet."

Being the True History of the Adventures of Fanny Hackabout-Jones

"A rollicking tale...a tour de force."—Newsweek

Discovered on the doorstep of a country estate in Wiltshire, England, the infant Fanny is raised to womanhood by her adoptive parents, Lord and Lady Bellars. Fanny wants to become the epic poet of the age, but her plans are dashed when she is ravished by her libertine stepfather. Fleeing to London, Fanny falls in with idealistic witches and highwaymen who teach her of worlds she never knew existed. After toiling in a London brothel that caters to literati, Fanny embarks on a series of adventures that teach her what she must know to live and prosper as a woman. Soon to be a major Broadway musical. Reading group guide included.

"Jong...filled a gap in the great tradition of the picaresque novel. Fanny had to be written, and Erica Jong was the right person to write it. Linguistically, Fanny is a tower of strength.... Jong has gone farther than Joyce."—Anthony Burgess, Saturday Review

"A literary prodigy."—New York Times Book Review

"A stirring book of fable and fantasy...outrageously readable."—Fay Weldon

When the beautiful Jessica Pruitt arrives in Venice to star in a film based on The Merchant of Venice, she is preoccupied: she has recently lost custody of her daughter, and as an older actress she is increasingly aware of the difficulty of landing leading roles. One day, as she wanders through an old Jewish ghetto, Jessica is magically transported to sixteenth-century Venice where she finds herself the heroine of "Will" Shakespeare's play. Immediately attracted to the younger playwright, Jessica enters into an intensely passionate love affair that defies time and place. Reading group guide included.

"Erica Jong can write a historical novel that both honors its tradition with affectionate parody and creates its own full fictional reality."—New York Times Book Review

"Fresh, innovative, ingenious...moving. The imagination of the poet she essentially is strikes deep. I recommend it with all my heart."—Anthony Burgess

"An amazing tour de force."—Cosmopolitan