“The female incarnation of Forrest Gump…her life reads like a trip back through the defining personalities and events of the 20th century.”—Shoreline Times

After coming of age at the legendary Grossinger’s resort hotel in the Catskills, Tania Grossinger defied the conventions of an era. When women were routinely consigned to focusing exclusively on husband and family, she chose her own path, and broke ground for the generations that came after her.

She started in public relations for The $64,000 Question, the TV show that was the focus of the infamous “quiz show scandals”; she was the publicist for Betty Friedan’s groundbreaking bestseller, The Feminine Mystique; and, for seven years, served as the director of broadcast promotion for Playboy Magazine and the Playboy Club. And that was only the beginning.

After escaping a brief her marriage, she embarked on the next chapter of her life. Along the way she crossed paths with such iconic figures as Ayn Rand, Jackie Robinson, Joan Rivers, Timothy Leary, and Johnny Carson. Tania would also became embroiled in a real-life mystery: the unsolved disappearance of Claudia Kirschhoch, a fellow travel writer who vanished without a trace from their beachside hotel on the western tip of Jamaica.

Of her first memoir, Growing Up at Grossinger’s, the Jewish Daily Forward said Tania’s “childhood was…Like a version of Kay Thomson's Plaza Hotel-dwelling Eloise by way of 'Dirty Dancing.’” Now, written as an open letter to an imaginary daughter, Tania reflects on growing beyond—in a smart, funny, and revealing account of ignoring expectations and becoming a truly independent woman.