BOOK REVIEW: Her own kind of feminist

As circulation and advertising rates climbed, males in the industry openly began to admire the editor who had reinvented the women's magazine. As a boss, Mrs. Brown was hands-on, straightforward and fair, resulting in unusually low employee turnover and a loyal staff that stayed with her more than 20 years. Writers loved her editing and encouragement, although the pay was miserly compared to that of other publications.

In 1997, at the time of Mrs. Brown's retirement, Cosmopolitan was selling 2.8 million copies a month. Now age 87, Mrs. Brown continues to work as editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan International. There are now 60 editions published in 36 languages, available to more than 100 million women across the globe, including Russia and China. The magazine's popularity attests to the empowerment of Mrs. Brown's mantra, that women have the right to have their sexual, emotional, economic and professional needs met.

One American fan wrote of the impact that the magazine and its editor had on her. “You liberated us,” she wrote, “taught us to use our brains and not just our looks, and in the '70s when women suppressed their femininity in order to fit into the male-dominated work-place and the feminist revolution … you went right on telling us it's OK to be women, to use our beauty and our brains and to be confident who we are as individuals.”

One could argue that long before, French women had mastered this balancing act. But now, thanks to Ms. Scanlon's careful and insightful study, Mrs. Brown has finally been accorded her due.

Marion Elizabeth Rodgers is the author of “Mencken: The American Iconoclast.”