Happy 101st Birthday Helen Gurley Brown

Today is the 101st birthday of the woman who is quoted as saying “Good girls go to heaven, bad girls go everywhere.” Helen Gurley Brown created conversations about topics that were before seen taboo. The world is a better place because she is in it and still feels the loss that she has left.

NAME: Helen Gurley Brown
OCCUPATION: Publisher
BIRTH DATE: February 18, 1922
DEATH DATE: August 13, 2012
PLACE OF BIRTH: Green Forest, Arkansas
PLACE OF DEATH: New York, New York

Father: Ira Marvin Gurley (Arkansas state legislator, d. 1932 elevator accident)
Mother: Cleo Sisco Gurley
Sister: Mary (d. polio)
Husband: David Brown (producer, m. 25-Sep-1959, d. 1-Feb-2010)

BEST KNOWN FOR: Helen Gurley Brown served as Cosmopolitan’s editor-in-chief for more than 30 years.

American writer Helen Gurley Brown was born on February 18, 1922 in Arkansas. She came on as editor-in-chief at Hearst Corporation’s Cosmopolitan magazine in the mid-1960s, a position that she held for more than 30 years, creating many of the magazine’s signature features, including its love quiz. She also spurred the magazine’s now-famous repuation for producing sexually overt content.

Throughout her career, Brown authored several books, many of which contained sexual topics, including 1962’s Sex and the Single Girl, 1965’s Sex and the Office, 1982’s Having It All and her most recent work, 2000’s I’m Wild Again: Snippets From My Life and a Few Brazen Thoughts.

Brown died on August 13, 2012, at the age of 90, at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Colombia in New York City, following a brief hospitalization.

Shortly after receiving news of Brown’s death, Frank A. Bennack Jr., CEO of Hearst Corporation, issued a statement: “Helen Gurley Brown was an icon. Her formula for honest and straightforward advice about relationships, career and beauty revolutionized the magazine industry. She lived every day of her life to the fullest and will always be remembered as the quintessential ‘Cosmo girl.’ She will be greatly missed.”

FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
The Last Mogul: The Life and Times of Lew Wasserman (19-Mar-2005) · Herself
Inside Deep Throat (11-Feb-2005) · Herself
The Sports Pages (7-Jan-2001) · Herself

Author of books:
Sex and the Single Girl (1962)
Sex and the Office (1965)
Outrageous Opinions of Helen Gurley Brown (1967)
Helen Gurley Brown’s Single Girl’s Cookbook (1969)
Sex and the New Single Girl (1970)
Having It All (1982)
The Late Show: A Semi Wild but Practical Guide for Women Over 50 (1993)
The Writer’s Rules: The Power of Positive Prose: How to Create It and Get It Published (1998)
Dear Pussycat (2004)