[MAIN] [DESIGN NOTES] [BIBLIOGRAPHY] [TIMELINE] [WRITINGS & ADS] [SECOND PAGE]

THE EARLY YEARS: 1882-1902

Helen Rosen Woodward was born on March 19, 1882 in New York City. Her parents were both working class Jewish immigrants, her mother from Germany and her father from Poland. He was employed as a cigarmaker and was also an ardent socialist. This political radicalism and distrust of the bourgeois lifestyle was deeply instilled within Woodward since childhood. She would later say:

"Even though I have lived a bourgeois life since I've been grown, I was so conditioned that I can look at business or government only through a working-class window."(Fox, pp.121-122)

Woodward considered herself to be both physically and socially unimpressive, and this led her to spend much of her time alone, reading classic works of literature. This tendency toward bookishness also would weigh heavily later on, when she was employed as an advertising copywriter. Her parents also considered her to be the most intelligent of their three children, and this prompted them to move to Boston in 1895, to enroll the 13-year old Woodward in the prestigious Girls' Latin School.

Five years later, the family moved back to New York, and Woodward felt the need to contribute to her family's income. She began looking for a job, and despite numerous disheartening rejections, finally took a position as a bookkeeper. Soon after, she became a librarian. Later on, she would say that these positions taught her a lot about humility and her own limitations.

After learning shorthand and typing, Woodward was given a job running a training/demonstration program for Remington typewriters, and was lauded by her employers for her fine teaching abilities and enthusiasm (despite a tendency to arrive late). Building on the confidence from this position, she then moved to a company, Merrill and Baker, that sold books through the mail and door-to-door. In fact, the company passed off slightly damaged and/or defective sets of classic works, and sold them at cut-rate prices. Woodward was fascinated by the lack of inquisitiveness on the part of the buyers about the price, and made her first copywriting contribution by writing circular letters, advertising the books. Her supervisors were pleased with her work, and she began perfecting her unique style of persuasive writing that would come in handy later on.

All the while, Woodward continued to read voraciously, and observed the behavior of the people around her from her own, detached viewpoint. Her advertising work at Merrill and Baker continued to expand, and before the company went out of business, she had also begun managing the mail department. At the age of 21, she was again out of a job, but now she had the confidence and the skills to begin her career in earnest.

[MAIN] [SECOND PAGE]