What are E. Jean Carroll's major books and publications?
Executive summary
E. Jean Carroll is an American journalist, memoirist and longtime advice columnist whose major books include a 2019 memoir-essay collection What Do We Need Men For?: A Modest Proposal, a biography of Hunter S. Thompson, and a 2024–25–era memoir Not My Type: One Woman vs. a President — all of which have been widely discussed alongside her decades-long “Ask E. Jean” column in Elle (1993–2019) [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. Major recent titles and the book critics noticed
Her high-profile recent books are Not My Type: One Woman vs. a President, a memoir that confronted the public fallout from her litigation and accusations against Donald Trump and that debuted as a bestseller (sources note its bestseller status) [3] [4], and What Do We Need Men For?: A Modest Proposal, published in 2019, which collected personal essays and the essay that first publicly accused Trump of sexual assault, and which became central to coverage of her work and the trials that followed [1] [2].
2. The Hunter S. Thompson biography and other nonfiction
Carroll is also the author of a noted biography, Hunter: The Strange and Savage Life of Hunter S. Thompson, a work cited repeatedly in publisher and author profiles and listed among her five books by outlets such as Macmillan and Wordfest [5] [2]; that biography anchors her work in literary journalism and is regularly listed alongside her memoirs in bibliographies and bookseller listings [6] [7].
3. Earlier books, humor and advice collections
Before her late-career memoirs, Carroll published several books of humor and advice, including Mr. Right, Right Now! (also marketed as Man Catching Made Easy) and A Dog in Heat Is a Hot Dog and Other Rules to Live By, a 1996 collection of her “Ask E. Jean” columns, and an earlier volume titled Female Difficulties — titles cataloged across booksellers and library listings of her work [1] [8] [9].
4. The long-running “Ask E. Jean” column and other journalism
Carroll’s most continuous publication has been her “Ask E. Jean” advice column in Elle from 1993 through 2019, one of American publishing’s longest-running advice columns and the source of several later collections and cultural recognition; beyond Elle she has written for Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, Esquire, New York, The Atlantic and others, and her reported features (such as the Spin piece “The Cheerleaders”) have been anthologized in Best American Crime Writing and other collections [1] [5].
5. How critics and press package her oeuvre — bestseller lists, counts, and publicity
Publishers and literary sites commonly summarize Carroll as the author of five books, a framing used by Macmillan and Wordfest, while booksellers and library catalogs list a broader set of titles and reprints — a discrepancy that reflects edition, reissue and marketing practices rather than a contradiction in authorship [2] [5] [6]. Her late-career memoirs received broad critical attention and bestseller placement, and the media coverage of her lawsuits and public testimony significantly amplified attention to those books [3] [4].
6. What these sources don’t settle and where to look next
The available sources reliably identify Carroll’s most prominent books and her long-running Elle column but do not present a single definitive, annotated bibliography of every edition, anthology contribution and reprint; for a complete list of titles, publication years, ISBNs and anthologies the best follow-up is publisher pages, library catalogs and commercial booksellers’ listings cited above (Macmillan, Barnes & Noble, ThriftBooks, AbeBooks) [5] [3] [6] [8]. These sources also document the way publicity and high-profile legal matters shaped the attention her books received, an implicit promotional dynamic present across publisher blurbs and news coverage [4] [3].