"She was 90, though parts of her were considerably younger."
One must also admire this pithy summation of the work she did when she took over Cosmopolitan Magazine in 1963: "Ms. Brown had never held an editing job, but her influence on Cosmopolitan was swift and certain: she did not so much revamp the magazine as vamp it."
Ba-dum-bump.
The whole obituary itself is a well-told summary of a very full life, not overlooking the more controversial aspects while offering what seems to me a remarkably fair assessment of Brown's contributions.
Another obituary triumph, Ms. Fox. Thank you for a fun and informative article on a subject worthy of your skills.
2 comments:
I can't help noticing that Margalit Fox doesn't know what "beholden" means (it doesn't mean "devoted", it means "in debt to" with the subtext "and I can't pay it back"). Also, "apron in tow"? An apron wouldn't protect your clothes if you towed it behind you. I admire HGB's honesty and wish I'd followed (some of) her advice. RIP.
I went back and read the obit with those things in mind. I know how it is when a word leaps out and drives you crazy, but I have to say, both those words/phrases seem apt to me.
"Beholden" especially seems to fit right in. Rather than being beholden to a political movement, she was "beholden mostly to the politics of personal advancement," is the way I read it. She certainly owes Cosmo's success to it.
I see your point about the apron, but it's still a vivid image of a woman dragging an apron around, as if that's the thing she brings to a man rather than her own sexy self.
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