Becoming the Ex-Wife: Book Launch
Becoming the Ex-Wife: Book Launch
Join us for an in-person book launch April 27, 2023 from 2:00-3:30 PM in 2115 Tawes Hall.
Marsha Gordon, director of Film Studies at North Carolina State University, will present her latest book, Becoming the Ex-Wife: The Unconventional Life and Forgotten Writings of Ursula Parrott (University of California Press). The book is a riveting biography of Ursula Parrott—best-selling author, Hollywood screenwriter, and voice for the modern woman. Although frequently dismissed as a "woman's writer," reading Parrott's writing today makes it clear that she was a trenchant philosopher of modernity.
For more information, contact Oliver Gaycken (ogaycken@umd.edu).
From the Publisher's Website:
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.