Nancy Friday Popular Books

Nancy Friday Biography & Facts

Nancy Colbert Friday (August 27, 1933 – November 5, 2017) was an American author who wrote on the topics of female sexuality and liberation. Her writings argue that women have often been reared under an ideal of womanhood, which was outdated and restrictive, and largely unrepresentative of many women's true inner lives, and that openness about women's hidden lives could help free women to truly feel able to enjoy being themselves. She asserts that this is not due to deliberate malice, but due to social expectation, and that for women's and men's benefit alike it is healthier that both be able to be equally open, participatory and free to be accepted for who and what they are. Biography Nancy Friday was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Walter F. Friday and Jane Colbert Friday (later Scott). She grew up in Charleston, South Carolina, and attended the only local girls' college-preparatory school, Ashley Hall, where she graduated in 1951. She then attended Wellesley College in Massachusetts, where she graduated in 1955. She worked briefly as a reporter for the San Juan Island Times and subsequently established herself as a magazine journalist in New York City, England, and France before turning to writing full-time. Her first book, published in 1973, was My Secret Garden, a compilation of her interviews with women discussing their sexuality and fantasies, which became a bestseller. Friday regularly returned to the interview format in her subsequent books on themes ranging from mothers and daughters to sexual fantasies, relationships, jealousy, envy, feminism, BDSM, and beauty. After the publication of The Power of Beauty (released in 1996, and then renamed and re-released in paperback form in 1999), she wrote little, contributing an interview of porn star Nina Hartley to XXX: 30 Porn Star Portraits, a book published in 2004 by photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, with her final book being Beyond My Control: Forbidden Fantasies in an Uncensored Age, published in 2009. Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s she was a frequent guest on television and radio programs such as Politically Incorrect, Oprah, Larry King Live, Good Morning America, and NPR's Talk of the Nation. She also created a website in the mid-1990s, to complement the publication of The Power of Beauty. Initially conceived as a forum for the development of new work and interaction with her diverse audience, it was not updated in later years. Despite the judgment of Ms. magazine ("This woman is not a feminist"), she predicated her career on the belief that feminism and the appreciation of men are not mutually exclusive concepts. Literary motivation Friday explained how "in the late 1960s I chose to write about women's sexual fantasies because the subject was unbroken ground, a missing piece of the puzzle ... at a time in history when the world was suddenly curious about sex and women's sexuality." The backdrop was a widespread belief that "women do not have sexual fantasies ... are by and large destitute of sexual fantasy."Friday considered that "more than any other emotion, guilt determined the story lines of the fantasies in My Secret Garden . . . women inventing ploys to get past their fear that wanting to reach orgasm made them Bad Girls." Her later book, My Mother/My Self, 'grew immediately out of My Secret Garden's questioning of the source of women's terrible guilt about sex."When she returned 20 years later to her original topic of women's fantasies in Women on Top, it was in the belief that "the sexual revolution" had stalled: "it was the greed of the 1980s that dealt the death blow ... the demise of healthy sexual curiosity."Friday, like other feminists, was especially concerned with the controlling role of the images of "Nice Woman ... Nice Girl"—of being "bombarded from birth with messages about what a 'good woman' is ... focused so hard and so long on never giving in to 'selfishness.'" However, as feminism itself developed "a stunning array of customs, opinions, moral values, and beliefs about how the world of women ... should conduct itself," so too it ran into the difficulty of moralism versus human nature—the fact that "feminism—any political philosophy—does not adequately address sexual psychology" eventually sparking the 'feminist "sex wars" ... from the early 1980s" onwards. Against that backdrop, Friday's evidential and empirical concerns continue to address the "open question of how many of their sexual freedoms the young women ... will retain, how deeply they have incorporated them." Criticism "Critics have labeled Friday's books unscientific, because the author solicited responses", thus potentially biasing the contributor pool. My Secret Garden was greeted by a "salvo from the media accusing me of inventing the whole book, having made up all the fantasies"; My Mother/My Self was "initially ... violently rejected by both publishers and readers"; while Women on Top "was heavily criticized for its graphic and sensational content."Friday was also criticized for her reaction to the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal affair, which critics interpreted as sexist. The journalist Jon Ronson wrote "In February 1998, the feminist writer Nancy Friday was asked by the New York Observer to speculate on Lewinsky's future. 'She can rent out her mouth,' she replied." Personal life Friday married novelist Bill Manville in 1967, separated from him in 1980, and divorced him in 1986. Her second husband was Norman Pearlstine, formerly the editor in chief of Time Inc. They were married at the Rainbow Room in New York City on July 11, 1988, and divorced in 2005. In 2011, Friday sold her home in Key West and moved to New York City.Nancy Friday died at her home in Manhattan from complications of Alzheimer's disease on November 5, 2017, at the age of 84. Bibliography My Secret Garden: Women's Sexual Fantasies, Simon & Schuster, 1973 Forbidden Flowers: More Women's Sexual Fantasies, Simon & Schuster, 1975 My Mother, My Self: The Daughter's Search for Identity, Delacorte Press, 1977 Men in Love, Men's Sexual Fantasies: The Triumph of Love Over Rage, Dell Publishing, 1980 Jealousy, M. Evans & Co., 1985 Women on Top: How Real Life Has Changed Women's Sexual Fantasies, Simon & Schuster, 1991 The Power of Beauty, HarperCollins Publishers, 1996. Republished as Our Looks, Our Lives: Sex, Beauty, Power and the Need to be Seen, HarperCollins Publishers, 1999 Beyond My Control: Forbidden Fantasies in an Uncensored Age, Sourcebooks, Inc., 2009See also References External links Official site A series of chats with Nancy Friday. Discover the Nancy Friday popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Nancy Friday books.

Best Seller Nancy Friday Books of 2024

  • Garden of Desires synopsis, comments

    Garden of Desires

    Emily Dubberley

    Female sexual fantasy began in 1973 with Nancy Friday’s multimillionselling collection of real women’s fantasies, My Secret Garden. Until that book was published, female sexual fan...

  • Dangerous Consequences synopsis, comments

    Dangerous Consequences

    Pamela Rochford

    When Rachel Kemp is in danger of losing her job at a London University visiting academic Luke Holloway takes her for a sybaritic weekend in the country to cheer her up. Her encount...

  • Cheatingland synopsis, comments

    Cheatingland

    Anonymous

    Reminiscent of Three Women and The State of Affairsand based on years of research and indepth interviews with more than sixty menthis eyeopening and explosive study explores why me...

  • The Torture Chamber synopsis, comments

    The Torture Chamber

    Lisette Ashton

    Catering for every perverse taste available, the torture chamber is an S&M club where no fetish is too extreme. When Sue visits, she realises that she cannot visit again the i...

  • River Of Secrets synopsis, comments

    River Of Secrets

    Saskia Hope

    When intrepid female reporter Sydney Johnson is posted to cover an archaeological exploration up the Amazon River, the assignment seems straightforward enough. But the crew's photo...

  • The Bathtub Murder Of Crime Club Founder Nancy Evans Titterton Good Friday April 10, 1936 synopsis, comments

    The Bathtub Murder Of Crime Club Founder Nancy Evans Titterton Good Friday April 10, 1936

    Robert Grey Reynolds Jr.

    Nancy Evans married Lewis Titterton in Manhattan in 1929. An aspiring author she met the Englishman, who soon became an executive with NBC, in one of New York's literary circles. T...

  • Longing for Toys synopsis, comments

    Longing for Toys

    Virginia Crowley

    Robert and James are upstanding members of the community. They are young professionals with bigoted, conservative uppermiddleclass girlfriends. When Michele a gorgeous stripper at...

  • Pet Training in the Private House synopsis, comments

    Pet Training in the Private House

    Esme Ombreux

    To the unititated, Hillingbury seems much like any other dormitory homecounties suburb, but to the residents its a sexual playground of domination and submission. The women who run...

  • Wicked Words 7 synopsis, comments

    Wicked Words 7

    Various Artists

    Wicked Words a collection of saucy and compelling short storiesOutrageous sex and saucy seduction abound in the seventh volume of Wicked Words erotic short stories. Written by wom...

  • Cruel Enchantment synopsis, comments

    Cruel Enchantment

    Janine Ashbless

    Cruel Enchantment is a stunning collection of unique and breathtakingly beautiful erotic fairy tales. Winged demonesses, otherworldly lovers and a dragon with an enormous sexual ap...

  • No Angel synopsis, comments

    No Angel

    M. Malone

    Leather. Fetishes. SM. The words conjure up a multitude of feelings for erotic fiction writer Sally Avery, for Sally has a secret. Despite her explicitly written prose, she is rela...

  • Black Lace Quickies 6 synopsis, comments

    Black Lace Quickies 6

    Various Artists

    Quickies a collection of bestselling short, sexy erotica from Black LaceEven office temps can be addictive ...Take a rendezvous in the Rocky Mountains ...Sometimes the best journe...

  • Black Lace Quickies 9 synopsis, comments

    Black Lace Quickies 9

    Various Artists

    Quickies a collection of bestselling short, sexy erotica from Black LaceSome girls strip away more than inhibitions to get what they need ...After work, Laura knows no restraint w...

  • American Blue synopsis, comments

    American Blue

    Penny Birch

    When Penny Birch discovers that her niece Jemima has been seduced into making a working tour of some of the USA's most notorious pornographers, she feels she has no choice but to s...

  • Regime synopsis, comments

    Regime

    Penny Birch

    Annabelle is the perfect mistress, and determined to prove it, claiming she can make a submissive woman yearn to be not just her plaything. but her property. Penny is talked into t...

  • Instruments of Pleasure synopsis, comments

    Instruments of Pleasure

    Nicole Dere

    Two musically gifted young cousins, Max (the girl with the boy's name) and Toni (vice versa) have been brought up under the tyrannous rule of Aunt Charlotte. Their lives are dr...

  • Crash Course synopsis, comments

    Crash Course

    Juliet Hastings

    Kate is a successful management consultant. When she's asked to run a training course at an exclusive hotel at short notice, she thinks the stress will be too much. But three of th...

  • Naughty Naughty synopsis, comments

    Naughty Naughty

    Penny Birch

    Gabrielle Salinger has been sent to track down Sabrina, a voluptuous and dominant young woman who has fallen under the influence of elderly sybarite David Anthony. Gabrielle soon d...

  • Black Lace Quickies 10 synopsis, comments

    Black Lace Quickies 10

    Ebury Publishing

    Quickies a collection of bestselling short, sexy erotica from Black LaceAnything can happen on a trip to Brighton, even before you leave the train ...The greediest girls lust for ...

  • Wicked Words 4 synopsis, comments

    Wicked Words 4

    Various Artists

    Delicious sex and arousing action abound Wicked Words 4. Hugely popular, the series is a showcase of writing by women at the cutting edge of erotic fiction, pushing the boundaries ...

  • Wicked Words 6 synopsis, comments

    Wicked Words 6

    Various Artists

    Wicked Words a collection of saucy and compelling short stories Outrageous behaviour and lustfilled liaisons are plentiful in the sixth volume of Black Lace Wicked Words short sto...