Betty Friedan: A Flawed Heroine, a presentation by David Denby

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Betty Friedan one of four subjects of David Denby’s group biography, “Eminent Jews: Bernstein, Brooks, Friedan, Mailer,” was one of the most rewarding to write about. Denby will trace her career from her unhappy girlhood, though her years at Smith and Berkeley, her time as a journalist in New York, working for trade union and then women’s magazines; the composition of her great book, “The Feminine Mystique”; her brilliant years after that as an organizer, and then her long, slow decline. Friedan was a heroine with all the flaws of blindness and arrogance that often come with extraordinary will. She began coming to the Hamptons after her marriage broke up, renting houses with groups of friends, and, at the end of her life, she owned a house in Sag Harbor, a town she adored. She remained politically active until her death, living a glorious, flawed life. Presented in partnership with Canio’s.

David Denby was born in New York in 1943 and was educated at Columbia College, the Columbia School of Journalism, and Stanford. He was movie critic for “The Atlantic” (1970-73), “The Boston Phoenix” (1976-78), “New York” magazine (1978-98), and “The New Yorker” (1998-2014). His articles and reviews have appeared in “The New Republic” and the “London Review of Books.” His books include “Great Books,” “American Sucker,” “Lit Up,” and currently, “Eminent Jews: Bernstein, Brooks, Friedan, Mailer.” He lives in New York with his wife, novelist Susan Rieger. Recent pieces for the “New Yorker” include an article on the career of comic genius Sid Caesar and an essay on Paul Thomas Anderson, director of “One Battle After Another” and other movies.

The above photo of Betty Frieday is (c) Sophie Bassouls, Sygma, Getty Images