Acknowledge Me

Written By Kelly Murphy

Elizabeth Wurtzel was a lightning rod. She was a memoirist who paved the way for the confessional female Substack writers of today. She was beautiful and impossible and incredibly talented. She also wrote the most interesting, endless, and endlessly interesting acknowledgments pages in modern literary history.

I now present to you an incomplete list of people, animals, and things Elizabeth Wurtzel thanks in her book acknowledgments:

• her mom

• Her cat Zap

• The entire hospitality industry

• A guy she had an affair with who fed her chicken soup and did cocaine with her in seedy motels

• Bruce Springsteen, whose music afforded her a “small fix of God’s presence” in her darkest moments

• A woman who lived in her mom’s apartment complex who had trichotillomania and who she liked because she had a TV (it was the 90s)

• A woman who worked for her publishing company who had a doctor boyfriend who helped her out one night when she had a panic attack

• People she met in rehab

• Someone who made her feel that the state of Ohio is now OK because she likes said person and they came from Ohio so Ohio must not actually totally suck ass

• Christina Ricci for portraying her in the movie version of Prozac Nation

• All readers and all bookstores the world over who helped her feel less alone and made her realize her work had a purpose

• Her editor who she loves in part because she has great shoes

• A male friend who helped her disprove the thesis of When Harry Met Sally because they are just platonic friends

• Her therapists

• Her husband

• A person she thanks for being and I quote “an apt household metaphor” which is just such a fucking amazing way to describe someone

• And finally “thank you to everyone else, especially some people, you know who you are.”

May we all write many books someday with acknowledgments that are equally as niche, hilarious, and touching. And Elizabeth Wurtzel forever.