Becoming the Ex-WifeMarsha GordonLabel: University of California PressDescription: Makes an excellent case for Parrott as an unjustly forgotten historical figure.—The New YorkerRemind[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.
