books in order

Erica Jong Books In Order

Isadora Wing Books In Publication Order

  1. Fear of Flying (1973)
  2. How to Save Your Own Life (1977)
  3. Parachutes & Kisses (1984)
  4. Fear of Dying (2015)

Standalone Novels In Publication Order

  1. Fanny (1980)
  2. Serenissima / Shylock’s Daughter (1987)
  3. Any Woman’s Blues (1989)
  4. Inventing Memory / Of Blessed Memory (1997)
  5. Sappho’s Leap (2003)

Collections In Publication Order

  1. Fruits and Vegetables (1971)
  2. Half-Lives (1973)
  3. Here Comes and Other Poems (1975)
  4. Loveroot (1975)
  5. The Poetry of Erica Jong (1976)
  6. Selected Poems, Volume 1 (1978)
  7. At the Edge of the Body (1979)
  8. Selected Poems, Volume 2 (1980)
  9. Ordinary Miracles (1983)
  10. Becoming Light (1991)
  11. Love Comes First (2009)
  12. The World Began with Yes (2019)

Picture Books In Publication Order

  1. Megan’s Two Houses: A Story of Adjustment / Megan’s Book of Divorce: A Kid’s Book for Adults (1984)

Non-Fiction Books In Publication Order

  1. Witches (1981)
  2. The Devil at Large (1993)
  3. Fear of Fifty (1994)
  4. What Do Women Want? (1998)
  5. Seducing the Demon (2006)
  6. Sugar in My Bowl (2011)
  7. A Letter to the President (2012)

Isadora Wing Book Covers

Standalone Novels Book Covers

Collections Book Covers

Picture Book Covers

Non-Fiction Book Covers

Erica Jong Books Overview

Fear of Flying

Originally published in 1973, the groundbreaking, uninhibited story of Isadora Wing and her desire to fly free caused a national sensation. In The New York Times, Henry Miller compared it to his own classic, Tropic of Cancer and predicted that ‘this book will make literary history…
‘ It has sold more than twelve million copies. Now, after thirty years, the revolutionary novel known as Fear of Flying still stands as a timeless tale of self discovery, liberation, and womanhood.

How to Save Your Own Life

Erica Jong like Isadora Wing, her fictional doppelganger was rich and famous, brainy and beautiful, and soaring high with erotica and mari*juana in 1977, the year this book was first published. Erica/Isadora are the perfect literary and libidinous guides for those readers who want to learn about or just be reminded of the sheer hedonistic innocence of the time. How to Save Your Own Life was praised by People for being ‘shameless, sex saturated and a joy,’ and hailed by Anthony Burgess as one of the ninety nine best novels published in English since 1939.

Parachutes & Kisses

Married again and divorced again, Isadora Wing is a single parent with an adorable daughter, an irritating ex husband, and a startling assortment of suitors: an unorthodox rabbi, a poetic disc jockey, the son of a famous sex therapist, and WASPily handsomest of all: Berkeley Sproul III. Isadora and Berkeley meet at a health club, and he’s fourteen years her junior. Of course their affair is tortuous and sexy, but is it love? Or does the stud just want a free trip to Venice, compliments of a famous author? Either way, Erica Jong wrote this romance with ‘a mixture of eloquence and savage wit as good as anything she has ever written,’ said The Wall Street Journal.

Fanny

Discovered on the doorstep of a country estate in Wiltshire, England, the infant Fanny is raised to womanhood by her adoptive parents, Lord and Lady Bellars. Fanny wants to become the epic poet of the age, but her plans are dashed when she is ravished by her libertine stepfather. Fleeing to London, Fanny falls in with idealistic witches and highwaymen who teach her of worlds she never knew existed. After toiling in a London brothel that caters to literati, Fanny embarks on a series of adventures that teach her what she must know to live and prosper as a woman. Soon to be a major Broadway musical. Reading group guide included.

Serenissima / Shylock’s Daughter

‘A stirring book of fable and fantasy…
outrageously readable.’ Fay WeldonWhen the beautiful Jessica Pruitt arrives in Venice to star in a film based on The Merchant of Venice, she is preoccupied: she has recently lost custody of her daughter, and as an older actress she is increasingly aware of the difficulty of landing leading roles. One day, as she wanders through an old Jewish ghetto, Jessica is magically transported to sixteenth century Venice where she finds herself the hero*ine of ‘Will’ Shakespeare’s play. Immediately attracted to the younger playwright, Jessica enters into an intensely passionate love affair that defies time and place. Reading group guide included.

Any Woman’s Blues

Any Woman’s Blues, first published in 1990, is a tale of addiction and narcissism the twin obsessions of ourage. World famous folk singer Leila Sand emerged from the sixties and seventies with addictions to drugs and booze. Leila’s latest addiction is to a younger man who leaves her sexually ecstatic but emotionally bereft. The org*asmic frenzies trump the betrayals, so she keeps coming back for more. Eventually, Leila frees herself by learning the rules of love, the Twelve Steps, and the Key to Serenity in an odyssey that takes her from AA meetings to dens of sin, parties with ‘names’ worth dropping, and erotic gondola rides.

Inventing Memory / Of Blessed Memory

Narrated by Sarah, who in the year 2005 finds herself drawn into the tumultuous lives of her unconventional ancestors, Inventing Memory chronicles the lives of Sara’s forebears. She calls to memory her great grandmother Sarah, propelled by a Russian pogrom to America in 1906; her grandmother Salome, who cavorted with Henry Miller in prewar Paris; and finally her mother, Sally, a famous folk singer and emblem of the ’60s. Through the paradoxical nature of memory Sarah comes to understand and impart her own story. Inventing Memory is the story of all women on the verge of the 21st century and recalls the saga of the 20th century woman and her heroic struggle to be free. It is Erica Jong’s most ambitious, complex and satisfying novel yet. Visit Ms.

Sappho’s Leap

Fearless, exuberant, and passionate, Sappho is Erica Jong’s most unforgettable hero*ine. Sappho’s Leap is a journey back 2,600 years to inhabit the mind of the greatest love poet the world has ever known. At the age of fourteen, Sappho is seduced by the beautiful poet Alcaeus, plots with him to overthrow the dictator of their island, and is caught and married off to a repellent older man in hopes that matrimony will keep her out of trouble. Instead, it starts her off on a series of amorous adventures with both men and women, taking her from Delphi to Egypt, and even to the Land of the Amazons and the shadowy realm of Hades. Erica Jong always our keenest eyed chronicler of the wonders and vagaries of sex and love has found the perfect subject for a witty and sensuous tale of a passionate woman ahead of her time. A generation of readers who have been moved to laughter and recognition by Jong’s hero*ines will be enchanted anew by her re creation of the immortal poet.

Becoming Light

An essential collection of poetry the best of her creative body of work by the internationally celebrated and bestselling author of Fear of Flying and Any Woman’s Blues.

Love Comes First

Love Comes First is Erica Jong’s long awaited return to her poetic roots! Here is Erica Jong s first book of all new poems in more than a decade. Known and beloved for Fear of Flying and her many other books of fiction, nonfiction and poetry, Jong expounds on the most eternal, universal topic of all: love. Using brilliant imagery and intense metaphorical insights to paint vivid pictures of love, and all that comes with it the heights of elation, the depths of sorrow she covers every inch of the spectrum with her vibrant and insightful words. Perfect for wedding showers, lovers of all ages, and Valentine s Day, Jong s trademark trailblazing style and remarkable ability to bridge the gap between literary and popular poetry makes Love Comes First an instant classic. Discover or discover yet again the brilliance of Erica Jong.

Megan’s Two Houses: A Story of Adjustment / Megan’s Book of Divorce: A Kid’s Book for Adults

Struggling with the many problems faced by children of divorced families, eight year old Megan tries to adjust to having two rooms, two pets, two sets of possessions, and two potential stepparents.

Witches

This witch’s brew of a book is back in all its tantalizing glory to enchant a new generation of readers. Best selling author Erica Jong here turns her attention to the fantastical and factual world of witchcraft. In beguiling poetry and prose, she looks at the figure of the witch both as historical reality and as archetype as evil crone and full breasted seductress, as a lingering vestige of a primeval religion and a projection of fear of the unknown. Joseph A. Smith’s powerful, haunting illustrations enliven each page, as Jong investigates the witch as a survivor of the age of sorcery, as a scapegoat for male dominated church state politics, as a remarkable natural healer, and as a hexer without peer. Real recipes for love potions and flying lotions, along with formulas for spells and incantations, make this book a rich journey of mystery and delight. Available in paperback for the first time, Witches has been a favorite since it was published more than 20 years ago a testament to the enduring fascination with the myths and truths about these intriguing figures.

The Devil at Large

Erica Jong, the author of ‘Fear of Flying’, was a correspondent and friend of Henry Miller for the last decade of his life. In this blend of biography, autobiography, scholarship and polemic, she sets out to re evaluate Miller’s work and to rescue him from charges of misogyny and titillation. The book contains Jong’s own correspondence with Miller, and also examines the background to the diaries of Anais Nin.

Fear of Fifty

A publishing event, a real life novel, Fear of Fifty is the true story of the woman who 20 years ago showed her generation how to soar in Fear of Flying and now looks back and ahead to as*sess the costs, the rewards and the meaning of the journey. Opening on her fiftieth birthday, Jong’s midlife memoir reads like fast paced fiction as it flashes back and forth in time to tell at last the truths at the heart of her novels. Poet, novelist, essayist, Jong has forged one of the most visible and volatile careers in American letters, and as a charter member of what she calls the ‘whiplash generation,’ she has had a front seat on the roller coaster American women have been riding for the past decades. Raised to be Doris Day, growing up wanting to be Gloria Steinem, now rearing daughters in the age of Princess Di and Madonna, today’s women have had their expectations raised and dashed and raised and dashed again, as they’ve watched themselves go in and out of style like hemlines. Now, as she and her contemporaries look for answers to the second half of their lives, Jong offers powerful, provocative insights into sex, marriage and aging; feminism past, present and future; the writing life; motherhood and family; identity and love, loyalty and loss, drawn through the brilliant prism of her own experience. In chapters such as ‘Fear of Fifty,’ ‘The Mad Lesbian in the Attic,’ ‘How I Got to Be the Second Sex,’ ‘How I Got to Be Jewish,’ ‘Fear of Fame,’ ‘Seducing the Muse,’ ‘Dona Juana Gets Smart,’ ‘Becoming Venetian’ and ‘How to Get Married,’ Erica Jong takes readers on an impassioned, outrageous, irreverent tour de force through the sea changes that have defined a generation. From technical virginity to the sexual revolution to the AIDS pandemic; from The Feminine Mystique to ‘political correctness’; from monogamy to open marriage and back again; from stay at home moms to moms who have won the right to be eternally exhausted; from sexual secrecy to sexual openness Jong proves yet again her unique ability to tap into the inner lives of women and the issues that matter most to them. Fear of Fifty is an intoxicating, riveting read, free wheeling and fun, warm, tough and full of wisdom. Sure to be embraced by women everywhere, it is destined, like its classic predecessor Fear of Flying, to become required reading for a generation on the threshold of a new revolution. Fear of Fifty is a funny, touching, unflinchingly honest cri de coeur about the joy and pain of being a fully sentient woman in the last half of the 20th century. Elegant and eloquent, this moving midlife meditation chronicles the daunting feat of juggling all at once the roles of wife, mother and lover; daughter, sister and friend; writer, feminist and Jew. Many women who came of age in the ’60s and ’70s will recognize Jong’s struggles, contradictions, and hard won conclusions as their own. Lisa Alther, author of Kinflicks

What Do Women Want?

Erica Jong’s two rules of writing are ‘never cut funny’ and ‘keep the pages turning.’ And Jong delivers in these twenty six essays, coupling frank and risqu stories about her own life with provocative pieces on her passion for politics, literature, Italy, and yes sex. Originally published in 1998, this updated edition features four new essays. What Do Women Want?? offers a startlingly original look at where women are and where they need to be in the twenty first century: Are women better off today than they were twenty five years ago? Has burning pre nup agreements become the new peak of romance? Why do our greatest women writers too often get dissed and overlooked? Why do powerful women scare men? And who is the perfect man? How does the mother daughter relationship influence cycles of feminism and backlash? Will Hillary become president? What is sexy?

Seducing the Demon

Erica Jong began this book as a guide for aspiring writers. It was to be a book full of practical advice, inspiring examples, and sage wisdom ‘Dare to dream,’ for instance. But she quickly realized that writing such a book would be dishonest, a way to veil the difficult nature of the writer’s life with platitudes and encouragement. A demon out of an Isaac Singer story whispered in Jong’s ear: ‘Tell the truth!’ She knew she had no choice but to obey. Seducing the Demon is the sublime and salacious story of one writer’s long and successful career as a poet, novelist, and feminist provocateur. Throughout, Jong is refreshingly direct whether writing sex scenes, evoking the lure of alcohol and grass in the search for ecstasy, or conforming to the rigid narrative of AA. She tells us candidly about how she always lusted after Bill Clinton, and how she discovered the joys of tantric sex. Equally candid about the privileges of fame and the slaps of notoriety, Jong is above all loyal to the importance of telling the truth in an age of lies. Jong tells us she writes ‘to get my life down on paper so it can never be extinguished,’ and ‘to keep from going mad.’ She speaks of the power of sexual desire to ‘transmute words into flesh,’ and reveals how a range of writers, from Kafka and Nabokov to Henry Miller and Pablo Neruda, influenced and guided her. Delivering trenchant observations on great writers, she compares the ethereal Virginia Woolf to the earthy James Joyce: ‘She is Ariel to James Joyce’s Caliban.’ An uncanny combination of bookish and bawdy, literary and libidinous, Seducing the Demon is an invaluable glimpse into one of the most provocative minds of our time.

Sugar in My Bowl

Poet, novelist, and essayist, the legendary Erica Jong whose novel Fear of Flying opened eyes and broke down walls offers us a provocative collection of essays about sex from some of the most respected female authors writing today. Real Women Write about Real Sex in Sugar in My Bowl, as such marquee names as Gail Collins, Eve Ensler, Daphne Merken, Anne Roiphe, Liz Smith, Naomi Wolf, and Jennifer Weiner, to name but a few, join together to speak openly about female desire what provokes it and what satisfies it. In the free, unfettered spirit of The Bit*ch in the House, Sugar in My Bowl explores the bedroom lives of women with daring, wit, intelligence, and candor.

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