37 Facts About Susan Lydon

Susan Gordon Lydon was an American journalist and writer, known for her 1970 feminist essay "The Politics of Orgasm", which brought the female fake orgasm into popular discussion.

Susan Lydon helped start Rolling Stone magazine and covered music journalism for it, and wrote pieces for Ramparts, Ms.

Susan Lydon started a newspaper for the Arica School in the 1970s.

Susan Lydon was a columnist for the Oakland Tribune newspaper, and she wrote two books about knitting.

Susan Lydon's memoir came one year after the book Home Fires, written by Don Katz about her birth family, the Gordons.

Susan Lydon's father was electrician Sam Goldenberg, and her mother was Eve Samberg, a singer at resorts in the Catskills Mountains; they married in 1942.

Sam left to serve in the US Army in Europe in 1943, and Susan Lydon was born in November while he was away.

Susan Lydon was named by her mother for actress Susan Hayward.

In 1961 at age 17, Susan Lydon was sneaking out of the house to nightclubs, and smoking marijuana.

Susan Lydon met Michael Lydon, a student at Yale University.

Michael and Susan Lydon moved to the UK to work in journalism.

Susan Lydon wrote about British affairs for the American magazine Newsweek.

Susan Lydon enrolled in graduate studies at San Francisco State University, but she soon dropped out of school.

Susan Lydon wrote for Sunday Ramparts, a supplement of Ramparts, connecting with Jann Wenner, the arts editor.

Michael Susan Lydon thought he was hired as managing editor, but this position was taken by Herbert "Hirk" Williamson.

Susan Lydon refused menial, secretarial assignments suggested by Wenner and instead wrote reviews and articles.

Susan Lydon's daughter Shuna was born in March 1968, and she left Rolling Stone, writing for a short-lived Hearst periodical titled Eye aimed at the youth market.

In late November 1968, Susan Lydon attended the first women's liberation conference at Camp Hastings in Lake Villa, Illinois, at which 200 women's rights activists met.

Susan Lydon separated from her husband in January 1969, taking her daughter to Berkeley to live with Ramparts contributor Tuck Weills for six months.

In Berkeley, Susan Lydon met with women feminists who were conducting a consciousness raising awareness meeting, and she was shocked to hear one woman admit to never having experienced an orgasm.

Susan Lydon proposed the idea to Ramparts male editorial board, including Robert Scheer, who all laughed at her.

Susan Lydon cried in the face of their ridicule, but persisted with her vision, writing the essay "Understanding Orgasm", which editor Peter Collier changed to "The Politics of Orgasm", published by Ramparts in 1970.

Susan Lydon freelanced in rock journalism and took a series of lovers.

Susan Lydon was invited in 1974 by a friend at the Arica School to move with her daughter to New York to write for Arica.

Susan Lydon was a columnist at The Village Voice, and wrote for The New York Times Magazine and other periodicals, often working from her communal residence on the Upper East Side of Manhattan amid her Arica colleagues.

Susan Lydon was arrested and prosecuted for theft and drug sales, and found guilty.

Susan Lydon started a long period of addiction recovery at Women Inc.

Susan Lydon proved her independence by staying clean for a year at the clinic, then moved to a nearby apartment to restore her career.

In 1989, Susan Lydon moved back to the San Francisco Bay Area, following her daughter, Shuna, who was enrolling in photography at California College of the Arts.

Susan Lydon settled in East Oakland, and in 1996 began writing for the Oakland Tribune and the associated ANG newspapers.

Susan Lydon rose to the position of regional director and editor.

Susan Lydon traveled the world to interview knitting women of various cultures that had retained the history and custom of knitting.

Susan Lydon's memoir focused on the more troubling aspects of her life, especially drug abuse, addiction, and incest.

Susan Lydon retreated every summer to a cabin on the Russian River to write, knit and birdwatch with women friends.

Susan Lydon regularly spoke to recovering drug addicts about her experience.

In 1994, Susan Lydon had a kidney removed to treat renal cancer.

Susan Lydon died of liver cancer on July 15,2005, at the age of 61.