Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: The Intimate Diary of a Professional Lady

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: The Intimate Diary of a Professional Lady (1925) is a novel by Anita Loos. Adapted from a series of stories written for Harper's Bazaar, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was an astounding success for Loos, who had mired for over a decade as a screenwriter in Hollywood and New York. An immediate bestseller, the novel earned praise from leading writers and critics of its time, and has been adapted several times for theater and film. Recognized as a defining text of the Jazz Age, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is an absolute classic dubbed "the great American novel" by Edith Wharton. Lorelei Lee is a young flapper living a life of luxury in Manhattan. A mistress for prominent Chicago businessman Gus Eisman, who pays handsomely, Lorelei has far surpassed her roots as a young woman from Little Rock, Arkansas. Despite her talent as an actress, she finds herself held as an object by wealthy, often married men, whom she uses accordingly. Hers is a life of fine cuisine, opulent jewelry, and tickets to the best shows in town. Soon, however, she grows tired of New York, and sets off on a trip to Europe with her friend Dorothy Shaw. Away from the men who had dragged them down, the two women explore London, Paris, and Vienna, where they find new dopes to dupe with the promise of love. A caricature of the Jazz Age woman, Lorelei Lee reflects the libido and materialism of a generation caught between wars, situated in a time of exponential cultural change, yet wary of disaster's proximity. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Anita Loos' Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: The Intimate Diary of a Professional Lady is a classic of American literature reimagined for modern readers.

Anita Loos (1888-1981) was an American playwright and novelist. Born in California, Loos was raised in a family of newspaper publishers. She was raised in San Francisco, where she would follow her father, a journalist and businessman, on fishing trips and other excursions to the city's impoverished areas. She worked as an actress in her teens, eventually becoming the main provider for her family due to her father's struggle with alcoholism. After graduating high school, Loos worked as a writer for several publications and submitted her first screenplay in 1911, for which she was paid $25. In 1912, her screenplay The New York Hat was turned into a successful silent film by D.W. Griffith, an early Hollywood legend. For the next several years, she found steady work as a writer for Griffith, receiving her first screen credit for a production of Macbeth. In 1918, she moved with her husband John Emerson to New York, where she found some success on a film for William Randolph Hurst's mistress Marion Davies, as well as on several features starring Constance Talmadge. In 1925, she adapted a series of sketches originally published in Harper's Bazaar to form Gentleman Prefer Blondes, a highly successful comic novel that earned her fame, fortune, and adoration from such writers as William Faulkner and Aldous Huxley. Dubbed "the great American novel" by Edith Wharton, Gentleman Prefer Blondes would be adapted countless times for theater and film, including the 1953 classic starring Marilyn Monroe.