Books by Anita Loos
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes -and- But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes: The Illuminating Diary of a Professional Lady
by Anita Loos
“Kissing your hand may make you feel very very good, but a diamond and safire bracelet lasts forever.”
Anita Loos first published the diaries of the gold-digging blonde Lorelei Lee in the flapper days of 1925, forging a new archetype for the modern world. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes follows Lorelei and her best friend, Dorothy, from Hollywood to Manhattan to Paris and London, pursued by eager suitors all the while. In “the Central of Europe,” with a new diamond tiara in her handbag, Lorelei meets a traveling American millionaire who just might be the one. She retires her diary, but not for long, because, as she writes in the opening pages of But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes, “it is bright ideas that keep the home fires burning, and prevent a divorce from taking all of the bloom off Romance.”
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Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
by Anita Loos
The delirious 1925 Jazz-Age classic that no less an authority than Edith Wharton called "the great American novel." If any American fictional character of the twentieth century seems likely to be immortal, it is Lorelei Lee of Little Rock, Arkansas, the not-so-dumb blonde who knew that diamonds are a girl's best friend. Outrageous, charming, and unforgettable, she's been portrayed on stage and screen by Carol Channing and Marilyn Monroe and has become the archetype of the footloose, good-hearted gold digger, with an insatiable appetite for orchids, champagne, and precious stones. Here are her "diaries," created by Anita Loos in the Roaring Twenties, as Lorelei and her friend Dorothy barrel across Europe meeting everyone from the Prince of Wales to "Doctor Froyd"-and then back home again to marry a Main Line millionaire and become a movie star. In this delightfully droll and witty book, Lorelei Lee's wild antics, unique outlook, and imaginative way with language shine.
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Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
by Anita Loos
Named one of the 100 Best Novels Ever Written in English (The Guardian)
Loos’s classic tale shows that questions of women and power―more relevant today than ever―can come in the most alluring of packages. This delirious 1925 Jazz Age classic introduced readers to Lorelei Lee, the small-town girl from Little Rock, who has become one of the most timeless characters in American fiction. Outrageous and charming, this not-so-dumb blonde has been portrayed on stage and screen by Carol Channing and Marilyn Monroe and has become the archetype of the footloose, good-hearted gold digger (not that she sees herself that way). Masquerading as her diaries, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes follows Lorelei as she entertains suitors across Europe before returning home to marry a millionaire. In this delightfully droll and witty book, Lorelei’s glamorous pragmatism shines, as does Anita Loos’s mastery of irony and dialect. A craze in its day and with ageless appeal, this new Liveright edition puts Lorelei back where she belongs: front and center.
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Where All Good Flappers Go: Essential Stories of the Jazz Age
by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dorothy Parker, Anita Loos, Zelda Fitzgerald
"I believe in the flapper as an artist in her particular field, the art of being – being young, being lovely." -- Zelda Fitzgerald
A sparkling new collection of "flapper fiction": stories featuring the iconic women who defined the Jazz Age
Edited and introduced by David M. Earle
Vivacious, charming, irreverent, the flapper is a girl who knows how to have a roaring good time.
In this collection of short stories, she’s a partygoer, a socialite, a student, a shopgirl, and an acrobat. She bobs her hair, shortens her skirt, searches for a husband and scandalises her mother. She’s a glittering object of delight, and a woman embracing a newfound independence.
Bringing together stories from widely adored writers and newly discovered gems, principally sourced from the magazines of the period, this collection is a celebration of the outrageous charm of an iconic figure of the Jazz Age.
This fabulous collection includes:
Zelda Fitzgerald “What Became of the Flapper” Dana Ames “The Clever Little Fool” F. Scott Fitzgerald “Bernice Bobs her Hair” Rudolph Fisher “Common Meter” John Watts “Something For Nothing” Dorothy Parker “The Mantle of Whistler” Katherine Brush “Night Club” Gertrude Schalk “The Chicago Kid” Dawn Powell “Not the Marrying Kind” Vina Delmar “Thou Shalt Not Killjoy” Guy Gilpatric “The Bride of Ballyhoo” Anita Loos “Why Girls Go South” Zora Neale Hurston “Monkey Junk”
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$18.00
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes A Novel
by Anita Loos
The literary classic that inspired the iconic Marilyn Monroe film—a brilliant satire of the Roaring Twenties that follows a wide-eyed blonde and her cynical brunette friend as they take Europe by storm, now with an introduction by Marlowe Granados to celebrate the book’s 100th anniversary!
“Cheeky . . . the zany surrealism of the Marx Brothers crossed with the desire—both sexual and material—of Sex and the City.”—Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s Fresh Air
Some might call Lorelei Lee lucky. Others, names she would not even put in her diary. Life in New York is becoming routine, so when her wealthy companion Mr. Eisman suggests that “a girl with brains ought to do something else with them besides think,” Lorelei is up to the challenge.
Accompanied by her best friend Dorothy Shaw, Lorelei chronicles the sights and people of Europe in her diary in a consistent mix of hilarity and accidental wisdom--“Paris is divine” and “London is really nothing at all.” Reliant on the good graces of the gentlemen around them to stay afloat as they await Eisman’s arrival on the continent, Lorelei and Dorothy skirt unscathed and at times oblivious around scorned and greedy lovers, plots of Francophone thievery, and even murder charges.
This hilarious, rip-roaring travelogue is a sharp-eyed takedown of the hypocrisy of Prohibition, the Roaring Twenties, and anyone foolish enough to stake their wallet on the dumb blonde stereotype. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is more than a guilty pleasure--it is a literary classic.
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