Podcast #81: Erica Jong on Becoming a Poet and Favorite Authors
When Erica Jong's novel Fear of Flying was published in 1973, its portrait of female sexuality felt, to many, revolutionary. Since then, the book has sold 27 million copies. The author of over twenty books of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, Jong is the author of the United Nations Award for Excellence in Literature. For this week's New York Public Library Podcast, we're proud to present Erica Jong on becoming a poet and her favorite authors.
Erica Jong at Books at Noon
Jong's lifelong dedication to writing began at home, where the author says art was omnipresent:
"My parents read poetry, wrote poetry. There was no family gathering without doggerel. There was no birthday without a birthday poem. Everybody wrote poetry, and they wrote poetry pretty well. They just didn't focus on it. They focused on painting or music. My father was a pianist and drummer who introduced the song 'Begin the Beguine,' 1935 auditioned by Cole Porter. I grew up with jazz. I grew up with show tunes. I grew up with Mozart. When my father went into business, he still was a musician. We never had a house without a Steinway. We never had a week without the Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera. I was absolutely stuffed with this stuff. And did I love 'The Magic Flute' when I was ten? Frankly, I didn't understand it. But I knew that someday it would be important to me, and it is."
In high school, she began writing seriously, but it was not always her supposed career path. In fact, she was encouraged to pursue medicine:
"I started writing seriously at the High School of Music and Art, now LaGuardia High School, started writing seriously there. I painted seriously there, and I was a pretty good painter. I went to the Art Students' League throughout my childhood. Not unusual for writers. Many writers are also artists. Then at Barnard, that was really a breakthrough for me, because at Barnard women's excellence is cherished. I remember my father wanted me to be a doctor. He said, 'You can also write poetry, but you got to be a doctor. All my daughters have to be doctors. You can't stop with a B.A. Sorry.' So I took Zoology I and II at Barnard... and I went to poetry teacher, Bob Pack, and I said, 'I'll never be a doctor. I can't dissect a fetal pig.' And he said, 'Darling, you're a poet. Forget about the fetal pig.'"
Known for ferocious satire, Jong's interest in the form grew as she studied 18th century literature. Amongst her favorite authors was Oscar Wilde:
"I loved poetry, then I got to study 18th century literature. I loved satire. I adored Swift. I adored Pope. I wanted to be a satirist. Satire was always extremely important to me. I read Oscar Wilde, one of my mother's favorite, favorite poets. 'The Battle of Reading Gaol.' I thought Oscar Wilde was the bee's knees. I thought Oscar Wilde was the greatest, and he was funny and savage. And, I read that book about the man who never ages, The Portrait of Dorian Gray, when I was in high school. I loved Oscar Wilde. I loved George Bernard Shaw. I loved making fun of the world."
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