A world-wide bestseller, major motion picture and upcoming "Director's Cut" TV mini-series exclusively for the U.S!
"Pope Joan has all the elements one wants in a historical drama–love, sex, violence, duplicity, and long-buried secrets. Cross has written an engaging book."–Los Angeles Times Book Review
For a thousand years her existence has been denied. She is the legend that will not die–Pope Joan, the ninth-century woman who disguised herself as a man and rose to become the only female ever to sit on the throne of St. Peter. Now in this riveting novel, Donna Woolfolk Cross paints a sweeping portrait of an unforgettable heroine who struggles against restrictions her soul cannot accept.
Brilliant and talented, young Joan rebels against medieval social strictures forbidding women to learn. When her brother is brutally killed during a Viking attack, Joan takes up his cloak–and his identity–and enters the monastery of Fulda. As Brother John Anglicus, Joan distinguishes herself as a great scholar and healer. Eventually, she is drawn to Rome, where she becomes enmeshed in a dangerous web of love, passion, and politics. Triumphing over appalling odds, she finally attains the highest office in Christendom–wielding a power greater than any woman before or since. But such power always comes at a price . . .
In this international bestseller, Cross brings the Dark Ages to life in all their brutal splendor and shares the dramatic story of a woman whose strength of vision led her to defy the social restrictions of her day.
Hi, Pope Joan fans and readers!
Thank you all so much for your heartwarming support of Pope Joan--an inspirational story of female empowerment through learning.
I'd like to encourage everyone to purchase the 2009 Three Rivers Press (Broadway) edition of Pope Joan, instead of previous editions. Yes, you might save a few dollars by purchasing an earlier edition, but you will miss a lot.
Here's why:
1. This is not just a reprint of the novel; it's a whole new edition. I was able to make changes and additions to the text (every writer's dream--to make the book better AFTER publication!) AND I explain these changes and additions in the Author's Note at the end.
2. The Three Rivers Press (Broadway) edition has larger print. Previous editions have teeny-weeny print that's hard on the eyes. Many readers complained about this, so I made sure the print was enlarged for this new edition.
3. The Three Rivers/Broadway edition includes new information about Joan's historical existence that emerged after my novel was first published. You might be surprised!
4. The Three Rivers Press/Broadway edition has a list of "Best of the Best" Reading Group questions, garnered from my many years chatting by speakerphone with reading groups all over the U.S. and Canada. Guaranteed, through the test of time, to spark interesting and lively conversation!
Biography:
I graduated Phi Beta Kappa, cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.A. in English.
After graduation, I went to live in London, England. Worked as editorial assistant for a small publishing house on Fleet Street, W.H. Allen and Company, where one of my duties was to read--and usually reject--submitted manuscripts (most memorable--a verse poem in ten volumes on the life of Admiral Lord Nelson--written by a Texan!!!)
Upon my return to the U.S., I worked at Young and Rubicam, the Madison Avenue advertising company, where I first learned how a clever wordsmith can twist words in order to deceive and mislead (this became the topic of my first book "Word Abuse: How the Words We Use Use Us). I spent a year helping write Aurora toilet paper commercials until the whole endeavor began to strike me as a very silly way to spend a life. So I went to graduate school at UCLA, where I got a master's degree in Literature and Writing.
Information on Pope Joan
The movie version of my novel Pope Joan, starring Johanna Wokalek, John Goodman, David Wenham, and Iain Glen, had its world premiere in 2009. It premieres in the U.S. as a two-part television mini-series on REELZ channel in December 2011.
Pope Joan was a selection of the Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Clubs. It is an international bestseller, translated into 36 different languages. In Germany, Pope Joan was the #1 bestseller for over three years. It is still on the list of longterm German bestsellers. There has even been a special bottling of wine in its honor: "Die Paepstin" ("She-Pope") wine, whose label features the book cover for Pope Joan!
The musical "Die Paepstin", based on my novel, premiered in Germany on June 3rd and is currently playing to sold-out houses.
Reviews and other information about the novel can be found at the book website (again, google Pope Joan and you'll find it).
Previous Books and Media Credits
1977 Speaking of Words, Holt Rinehart (with James MacKillop)
1979 Word Abuse: How the Words We Use Use Us, G.P. Putnam
1981 Daddy's Little Girl: The Relationship Between Fathers and Daughters, (with my father, William Woolfolk), Prentice-Hall
1983 Mediaspeak: How Television Makes Up Your Mind, G.P. Putnam
Bibliography
Non-fiction
Word Abuse: How the Words We Use Use Us (1979) ISBN 978-0-698-10906-3
Daddy's Little Girl: The Unspoken Bargain Between Fathers and Their Daughters (1983) (with William Woolfolk) ISBN 978-0-13-196279-8
Mediaspeak: How Television Makes Up Your Mind (1984) ISBN 978-0-451-62802-2
Speaking of Words: A Language Reader (1986) (with James MacKillop) ISBN 978-0-03-003953-9
Novels
Pope Joan (1996) ISBN 978-0-307-45236-8
