Who Is Molly Jong-Fast's Mother? Learn All About the Author's Famous Mom

Molly Jong-Fast is sharing about her relationship with her mother in her new book, How to Lose Your Mother: A Daughter's Memoir. The journalist's new memoir was just released, and she shares the devastation of watching her feminist icon mother, Erica Jong, battle dementia.

The new memoir also shares details of Molly's life growing up with the Fear of Flying novelist, per Vanity Fair.

With the book's release, people want to know all about the incredible life of the woman who is "famous for being famous." So, who is Molly Jong-Fast's mother?

The mother of Molly Jong-Fast is poet and novelist Erica Jong. Erica became famous after writing her 1973 novel, Fear of Flying. The book was controversial because of its attitudes towards female sexuality, a taboo subject at the time. The book explored women's sexual desires and challenged society's gender roles, and many critics claimed the book was scandalous.

The book was also influential in developing second wave of feminism. Erica is also the daughter of another writer, Spartacus novelist Howard Fast. The film Spartacus starring Kirk Douglas was based on Howard's book.

Erica was also known for her 1977 novel How to Save Your Own Life, Fanny (1980), Witches (1981), and the 2015 book, Fear of Dying, and she wrote more than 30 books in total.

Erica Jong was married several times. She was first married to Michael Werthman from 1963 to 1965. She later married Army Medical Corps Captain Allan Jong. The couple was married from 1966 to 1975. In 1977, she married fellow author Jonathan Fast, but the couple divorced in 1982. Erica's final marriage was to Ken Burrows, an attorney. The couple wed in 1989 and were married until his death in 2023.

The author began showing signs of dementia several years ago, and Molly was alerted by a friend after Erica posted "Neat" under a picture of the friend's dead father. While trying to convince her step-father that Erica had memory issues, Molly wrote, “She wrote ‘neat’ on someone’s Instagram post about her dead father. Like, ‘Gee whiz, that’s so neat that your father died.’ ”

Erica was later diagnosed with dementia, and according to Molly, sadly, the mother she knew is now gone. "Erica Jong the person has left the planet."

An excerpt from the book notes that Erica was "famous for being famous" after her book was published.

"I grew up with Erica Jong everywhere — on television, in the crossword puzzle, in the newspaper," wrote Molly. "She was a kind of second-wave feminist, a white feminist, and (a highly educated, wildly affluent, Jewish, and somewhat out-of-touch) Everywoman. But she wasn’t an actual Everywoman, of course; she was too famous for that."

"Too famous, and too special," she continued. "She was famous for her book Fear of Flying, and then later she was famous for being famous, and then eventually she wasn’t famous anymore. Because fame, like youth, is fleeting; it deserts you when you least expect it. The wheel of fortune is always spinning."

Erica currently lives in a senior care facility in New York City.