Cynthia Heimel, Pioneering Author of »Sex Tips for Girls«, Dies At 70

Cynthia Heimel’s funny and confessional writing style featured in her bestselling book »Sex Tips for Girls« (1983) became a cultural staple and paved the way for a whole generation of dating and sex tips authors and mainstream successes like Sex and The City and Lena Dunham’s Girls.

While Heimel always tried to point out that she was a comedian and humorist and not so much a sex expert, people took her advice. Her influence on comedians like Lena Dunham and Amy Schumer cannot be overstated.

Comedian and author Emily Prager said to the New York Times: »I used to say about Cynthia’s writing, and her being, that she had the soul of Janis Joplin in the voice of Hedda Hopper. She was a voice for liberation with manners, freedom without regret and the blues with a grain of salt.«

The influential critic for the New York Times, Stephen Holden said about Heimel: »Like Dorothy Parker, Ms. Heimel is an urban romantic with a scathing X-ray vision that penetrates her most deeply cherished fantasies.«

Next to her books Heimel also wrote as a columnist for magazines like The Village Voice and Playboy. She was open, sometimes profane and blunt, and like many of her later day incarnations on popular television always on the lookout for Mr. Right or a one night stand

In later years she made comments revealing doubts about her work for Playboy. She »was in the missionary position at Playboy, holding high her feminist credentials amongst the stampeding bunnies.«

Ms. Heimel died last Sunday in Los Angeles after getting diagnosed with dementia and battling depression in recent years. She leaves behind her son and a sister, as well as four grandchildren.