The Hearst tabloid the Daily Mirror serialized the novel and teased “the most talked about story of the day” with a full-page ad prominently featuring Parrott’s name and pixie-cut likeness. Walter Winchell, the gossip columnist and radio host, called it a “sensational book about husbands and sex.” It was published anonymously-a not uncommon marketing gimmick of the time-but the author was soon outed in Winchell’s newspaper column as Ursula Parrott, a thirty-year-old first-time novelist, the daughter of a respected Boston physician, a Radcliffe graduate, a single mother of a young son, and a verified ex-wife. In the summer of 1929, a provocative New York novel titled “ Ex-Wife” arrived in bookstores, quickly selling out its first printing.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |