Download The Extra Woman: How Marjorie Hillis Led a Generation of Women to Live Alone and Like It AudioBook Free
Despite multiple waves of feminist revolution, today's single woman is still mired in view or, worse, pity. But also for one short exclamatory period in the 1930s, she was all the rage. Marjorie Hillis was working at Vogue when she published the radical self-help publication Live Alone and ENJOY IT: A Guide for the excess Girl. With Dorothy Parker-esque wit, she urged spinsters, divorcees, and old maids to shed derogatory brands, and her school of thought became a sensation. From the value of any peignoir to the joy of breakfast in bed (by itself), Hillis's tips made single life appealing and elegant. Now, historian and critic Joanna Scutts reclaims Hillis as the queen of the "Live-Aloners" and explores the turbulent ages that used, when the status of the "brazen gals" peaked and then collapsed. The Extra Girl employs Hillis and others like her who forged their 3rd party paths before the 1950s observed them stuck behind picket fences just as before.
