Despite the fact that I’m a magazine editor and a long time fashion bible fan, it was my sister who turned me on to Helen Gurley Brown less than 10 years ago. 
I subsequently went out and found a perfectly preserved copy of her best seller Sex and the Single Girl, with get this, her autograph inside.
I say despite because given the impact she had on magazines and on women’s sexuality and economic power I likely should have known who she was earlier in my career. Of course, I was never a Cosmo reader – and that’s where she made her mark – ironically because it had too much sex, and that was Ms. Brown’s stock in trade.
Ms. Brown left quite a legacy behind, and for any writer worth his or her salt, a legacy is part and parcel of the game. I’ve read quite a few pieces detailing her life’s accomplishments and peer responses to her passing, and I especially like this line from Jill Herzig, editor-in-chief of Redbook who worked with Brown at Cosmo as an editorial assistant:
“Helen defined an era in which magazines were direct extensions of an editor-in-chief’s life,” said Herzig. “Everything about [her] — her passions and eccentricities, her quirky verbal tics, her friendships, her insecurities, her wild fashion sense, her personal narrative — shap”Helen defined an era in which magazines were direct extensions of an editor-in-chief’s life,” said Herzig. “Everything about [her] — her passions and eccentricities, her quirky verbal tics, her friendships, her insecurities, her wild fashion sense, her personal narrative — shaped Cosmo. Her fascinating mind made for a fascinating magazine.”
Now I have to read that book… Helen Gurley Brown died Monday August 13, 2012. She was 90.
A Life Not Grey 