Publication Order of Isadora Wing Books
| Fear of Flying | 1973 |
| How to Save Your Own Life | 1977 |
| Parachutes & Kisses / Parachutes and Kisses | 1984 |
| Fear of Dying | 2015 |
Publication Order of Standalone Novels
| Fanny: Being the True History of the Adventures of Fanny Hackabout-Jones | 1980 |
| Serenissima / Shylock’s Daughter | 1987 |
| Any Woman’s Blues | 1990 |
| Inventing Memory / Of Blessed Memory | 1997 |
| Sappho’s Leap | 2003 |
Publication Order of Children’s Books
| Megan’s Book of Divorce / Megan’s Two Houses | 1984 |
Publication Order of Poetry Collections
| Fruits & Vegetables | 1971 |
| Half-Lives | 1973 |
| Loveroot | 1975 |
| At the Edge of the Body | 1979 |
| Ordinary Miracles | 1983 |
| Becoming Light: New and Selected | 1991 |
| Love Comes First | 2009 |
| The World Began with Yes | 2019 |
Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books
| Witches | 1981 |
| The Devil at Large: Erica Jong on Henry Miller | 1993 |
| Fear of Fifty | 1994 |
| What Do Women Want? | 1998 |
| Seducing the Demon: Writing for My Life | 2006 |
About Erica Jong
Erica Jong (born Erica Mann in New York City on 26 March 1942) is an American novelist and poet. She is best known for her first novel, “Fear of Flying” (1973), whose frank treatment of a woman’s sexual desires made it controversial on publication and gave it a prominent place in second-wave feminism.
She was born in Manhattan, one of three daughters of Seymour Mann, a businessman whose gifts company was known for its porcelain dolls, and Eda Mirsky, a painter and textile designer. She attended the High School of Music & Art, graduated from Barnard College in 1963 and took an MA in eighteenth-century English literature at Columbia University in 1965. Her surname comes from her second husband, the psychiatrist Allan Jong, whom she married in 1966 and with whom she spent three years on an army base in Heidelberg.
Jong began as a poet. Her first collection, “Fruits & Vegetables”, appeared in 1971, the year she won Poetry magazine’s Bess Hokin Prize, and “Half-Lives” followed in 1973. “Fear of Flying” came out the same year. Its narrator, Isadora Wing, is a 29-year-old poet who travels to Vienna with her second husband and decides to act on her sexual fantasies with another man. The novel has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide.
Isadora’s story continues in “How to Save Your Own Life” (1977) and “Parachutes & Kisses” (1984), both of which draw on Jong’s marriage to the novelist Jonathan Fast, and she returns as the best friend of the narrator in “Fear of Dying” (2015). Jong’s other novels include “Fanny” (1980), a retelling of “Fanny Hill”, “Serenissima” (1987), a Venetian novel later retitled “Shylock’s Daughter”, and “Sappho’s Leap” (2003).
Her non-fiction includes “The Devil at Large” (1993), a study of Henry Miller, the memoir “Fear of Fifty” (1994) and “Seducing the Demon” (2006). Her most recent book is the poetry collection “The World Began with Yes” (2019). Columbia University acquired her literary archive in 2007. Her daughter, the writer Molly Jong-Fast, published a memoir about their relationship, “How to Lose Your Mother”, in 2025.
Photo: Gorup de Besanez, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped).