Helen Gurley Brown Papers, 1938-2001 : Scope & Contents of the Collection

Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Helen Gurley Brown Papers consist of 22.5 linear feet of material and date from 1938 to 2001. The bulk of the papers were produced in the 1960s and provide a comprehensive picture of Brown's exceptionally intertwined personal and professional lives. Types of material include personal and professional correspondence, published and unpublished writings, personal records and memorabilia, printed materials, photographs, biographical materials, an audiotaped interview, videotapes, phonograph albums, scrapbooks, and posters.

Some material pertaining primarily to David Brown can be found in SERIES I. BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS and SERIES IV. WRITINGS. Since he collaborated with Helen on many of her projects, his work is interspersed throughout her papers. Helen Gurley Brown has been a pivotal figure in the magazine world in the second half of the twentieth century, and her papers give an insider's look into the Hearst organization, one of the most powerful media organizations of this century, and the publishing industry in general. The papers also address topics well beyond the world of magazines. Her work as an advertising copywriter at a time when women were not expected to work outside of the home certainly deserves consideration, and her call for "liberation" of the single woman was among the first. Brown's rags to riches career was unusual at a time when most women still did not work outside the home. Her experience of moving from pink-collar clerical worker to wealthy doyenne of the mass media was unique. She helped shape the popular culture of the 1960s and beyond. Sex and the Single Girl ushered in a spate of "Sex and the..." imitators but also launched a cultural dialogue on the question of the unmarried, sexually active, employed woman. The look of Cosmopolitan, which was conveyed on the signature covers photographed by Francesco Scavullo and the racy cover blurbs, defined young women's magazines for much of the second half of the twentieth century. As her career progressed, Brown associated with rich and influential people, who are well-represented in her collection. Additionally, the strong responses, both positive and negative, elicited by Brown's work give a sense of changing and conflicting public opinion on questions of sex, gender, and the media. To date, there is no scholarly biography of Helen Gurley Brown.