Lois Gould

Who was Lois Gould?

Lois Gould was an acclaimed American writer, known for her novels and other works about women's lives. She was born in Manhattan, the daughter of fashion designer Jo Copeland and Edward J. Regensburg, Jr., a cigar manufacturer. Gould's 1998 memoir of life with her mother, Mommy Dressing: A Love Story, After a Fashion, enjoyed widespread critical praise.

In 1970 Lois Gould published her first novel, Such Good Friends, about a woman who learns of her husband's many affairs only after he has lapsed into a coma while in hospital. Such Good Friends was on the New York Times best-seller list for seven weeks and was subsequently adapted for film by Otto Preminger. The book was republished along with Gould's other novels in 1988. The novel's plot was partly drawn from life: When, in 1966, Gould's then husband Philip Benjamin, a New York Times reporter, died accidentally in connection with minor surgery, his widow reputedly discovered, among his papers, an encoded diary which concerned his numerous acts of adultery.

Lois married psychiatrist Robert E. Gould in 1967, who adopted her sons Anthony and Roger Gould. Her novel Final Analysis, published in 1974, appears to be partly autobiographical as well; it features a writer falling in love with her former psychotherapist. Gould published a collection of essays, Not Responsible for Personal Articles, in 1978, followed by several other novels, as well as writing for the now-defunct Star-Journal on New York's Long Island and writing the first and subsequent "Hers" columns for the New York Times. Her only children's story, X: A Fabulous Child's Story, was a feminist story questioning gender roles; it was published in Ms. Magazine in 1972 and in 1978 expanded into a book. She was executive editor of the Ladies Home Journal and edited several other national magazines.