"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.
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.
Table of Contents
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
