The Original Cosmo Girl

Helen Gurley Brown gave women permission to succeed in the office and the bedroom.

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Before there was "Sex and the City," there was "Sex and the Single Girl," Helen Gurley Brown's hall pass for women to have the job, the man, the money and all the sex they wanted.

The iconic editor of Cosmopolitan magazine, with its bosomy Cosmo girls on the cover dripping with pearls and promising pleasure, died Monday at the age of 90 after a brief illness. She had reported to her pretty, pink corner office in the Hearst Building in Manhattan almost daily until her death.

It was a guide to more than sexual freedom, it was advice on financial and personal independence. But it was roundly criticized by the standard bearers of early feminism. Betty Friedan, who wrote about a woman's ennui while Ms. Brown was writing about her orgasms, found it "obscene and horrible."

"It would be hard to overstate the importance ... of her success... with Cosmopolitan," said a statement from Hearst Corporation, the magazine's publisher. "Helen was one of the world's most recognized magazine editors and book authors, and a true pioneer for women in journalism — and beyond."

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