Jane Juska, Who Wrote of Love Late in Life, Dies
As Jane Juska — divorced, lonely and 66 — watched Eric Rohmer’s film “Autumn Tale” in 1999 in a theater in Berkeley, Calif., she was swept up by the story, in which a married woman secretly places a personal advertisement in a newspaper for a widowed friend who believes it is too late for her to find love.
Why not, Ms. Juska wondered, do something similar for herself?
Seeking to meet intelligent men, she bought an ad in the personals section of The New York Review of Books. Not wishing to overspend on the ad, she winnowed her piquant message to these memorable words, which cost her $4.55 each:
“Before I turn 67 — next March — I would like a lot of sex with a man I like. If you want to talk first, Trollope works for me.”
More than 60 letters arrived quickly, forwarded by The New York Review in manila envelopes. One included a nude photo; another was filled with sexual promises.
Ms. Juska’s encounters formed the basis of “A Round-Heeled Woman: My Late-Life Adventures in Sex and Romance,” a memoir, published in 2003, that followed her from her prudish Midwestern roots to her liberated flings and brought her to Oprah Winfrey and Charlie Rose’s television talk shows to tell her story.
Read more at The New York Times.
