Erma Bombeck life and biography

Erma Louise Bombeck, born Erma Fiste was an American humorist who achieved great popularity for her newspaper column that described suburban home life from the mid-1960s until the late 1990s. Bombeck also published 15 books, most of which became best-sellers.

She achieved great popularity for a newspaper column that depicted suburban home life in the second half of the 20th century.

Born in Dayton, Ohio, Bombeck graduated from the University of Dayton in 1949 with a degree in English. She started her career in 1949 as a reporter for the Ohio Journal Herald, but after marrying school administrator Bill Bombeck, a college friend, she left the job and raised three children.

As the children grew she started writing At Wit's End, telling self-deprecating tales about the life of a housewife. It debuted in the Kettering-Oakwood Times in 1964. She was paid $3 per column.

Growing popularity led At Wit's End to be nationally syndicated in 1965, and eventually it ran twice a week in more than 700 newspapers. The column was collected in many best-selling books, and her fame was such that a television sitcom was based on her. The series, Maggie, ran for eight shows in 1982 before being cancelled.

In 1971, the Bombecks moved to Paradise Valley, Arizona.

Bombeck suffered from polycistic kidney disease, a hereditary disorder that causes cysts to form on the kidneys. In 1996 worsening health forced her to have a kidney transplant, and she died of complications that year.

Books:

* At Wit's End, Doubleday, 1967.
* Just Wait Until You Have Children of Your Own, Doubleday, 1971. Written with Bil Keane.
* I Lost Everything in the Post-Natal Depression, Doubleday, 1974.
* The Grass is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank, McGraw-Hill, 1976.
* If Life is a Bowl of Cherries, What Am I Doing in the Pits?, McGraw-Hill, 1978.
* Aunt Erma's Cope Book, McGraw-Hill, 1979.
* Motherhood: The Second Oldest Profession, 1983.
* Family — The Ties that Bind ... and Gag!, 1987.
* I Want to Grow Hair, I Want to Grow Up, I Want to Go to Boise: Children Surviving Cancer, 1989. American Cancer Society's Medal of Honor in 1990. (Profits from the publication of this book were donated to a group of health-related organizations.)
* When You Look Like Your Passport Photo, It's Time to Go Home, 1991.
* A Marriage Made in Heaven ... or Too Tired For an Affair, 1993
* All I Know About Animal Behavior I learned in Loehmann's Dressing Room, HarperCollins 1995
* Forever, Erma: Best-Loved Writing From America's Favorite Humorist

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