Helen gurley brown

Nora Ephron’s first article for Esquire—where she was a star essayist in the ’70s—is the definitive magazine profile of Helen Gurley Brown, who not only resurrected Cosmopolitan magazine, but already by 1970, had revolutionized the magazine business.

How one Hearst executive took control of the Cosmopolitan editor’s legacy — and her $50 million apartment.

Somewhere back in the day Helen Gurley Brown said that after a certain age the only thing a woman could rely on to improve her appearance was good posture and expensive jewelry. At least that is my recollection, though I no longer recall the exact source or context. The gender specificity, the whiff of doom in the goal, the daft simplicity, the conciseness, the candor, and the plausibility caused it to stick in my head (although my most recent earrings were bought for three dollars from a…

Brooke Hauser on her new biography and whether we can claim the legendary Cosmo editor as a feminist.

Peek inside the homes of Marilyn Monroe, Louis Armstrong, Yoko Ono, and more.

The legendary ​Cosmo editor made her career on sleeping with many men and encouraging readers to do the same. But behind closed doors, she agonized over lost loves and unfaithful partners.

Joan Didion reports from Helen Gurley Brown's book tour in the 1960s.