Erica Jong

American novelist and satirist

Date of Birth	:	26 Mar, 1942
Place of Birth	:	Manhattan, New York, United States
Profession	:	American Novelist And Satirist
Nationality	:	American

Erica Jung is an American novelist, satirist, and poet, best known for her 1973 novel Fear of Flying. The book became famously controversial for its approach to female sexuality and figured prominently in the development of second-wave feminism. According to The Washington Post, it has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide.

Early life and education

Jung was born on March 26, 1942. She is one of three daughters of Seymour Mann (died 2004), and Ada Mirsky (1911–2012). Her father was a businessman of Polish Jewish descent who owned a gift and home accessories company known for mass production of porcelain dolls. Her mother was born in England to a Russian Jewish immigrant family and was a painter and textile designer who also designed dolls for her husband's company.

Jung had an older sister, Susanna, who married Lebanese businessman Arthur Dow, and a younger sister, Claudia, a social worker who married Gideon S. Married to Oberweger (CEO of Seymour Mann Inc. until his death in 2006). among his nephews is Peter Dow, a Democratic Party strategist.

Jung attended The High School of Music and Art in New York in the 1950s, where he developed his passion for art and writing. As a student at Barnard College, Jung edited Barnard Literary Magazine and produced a poetry program for Columbia University's campus radio station, WKCR. in 18th-century English literature from Columbia University.

Career

Jung is best known for his first novel Fear of Flying (1973), which creates a sensation through its frank treatment of a woman's sexual desire, where she is and where she is going. Jung uses psychological and humorous narrative elements, rich cultural and literary references, and candid descriptions and ruminations of sexuality.

The book addresses some of the conflicts that arose in late 1960s - early 1970s America - femininity, femininity, sexuality and relationships, freedom and purpose vs. women. Isadora Wing's failure story continues in two more novels, How to Save Your Own Life (1977) and Parachutes and Kisses (1984).

Personal life

Jung was married four times. After a brief marriage to Michael Worthman while at Barnard, and in 1966 to Alan Jung, a Chinese American psychiatrist, in 1977 she married novelist, social work educator, and son of novelist Howard Fast, Jonathan Fast. This wedding describes how to save your own life and parachutes and kisses. He has a daughter from his third marriage named Molly Jung-Fast. Jung was married to Kenneth David Burroughs, a New York litigator, until his death on December 14, 2023.

Jung lived with her second husband for three years (1966–69) on an army base in Heidelberg, West Germany. He was a frequent visitor to Venice and wrote about that city in his novel Shylock's Daughter.

In 2007, his literary archive was acquired by Columbia University in New York City.

"Highlands", the closing song on Bob Dylan's Grammy Award-winning album Time Out of Mind (1997), refers to Jung as a "woman writer" as the narrator reads. He satirized MC Paul Burman on the track "N.O.W," in which the rapper fantasizes about a young leftist carrying a fictional Jung book mistitled America.

Jung supports LGBT rights and the legalization of same-sex marriage. He said, "Same-sex marriage is a blessing not a curse. It certainly promotes stability and the family. And it's certainly good for children.