“I had forgotten how awful it was to be a woman alone--the leering glances, the catcalls, the offers of help which you dared not accept for fear of incurring a sexual debt. The awful sense of vulnerability. No wonder I had gone from man to man and always wound up married. How could I have left Bennett? How could I have forgotten?”

American novelist, satirist, and poet

Erica Jong is an American novelist, satirist, and poet, known especially for her 1973 novel Fear of Flying. That book drew wide attention for its frank treatment of female sexuality and became part of the cultural moment of second-wave feminism. It sold more than 37 million copies worldwide, and remains the work most closely associated with her name.