GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES

New York: Boni & Liveright, 1925. First edition. Very good in very good jacket.. Inscribed first issue of the famous bestseller of the Jazz Age, chronicling the high life of a Hollywood flapper's trip to Europe. One of the great comic novels of the early 20th century, this work follows in the tradition of humorists like Mark Twain with the conceit of the American innocent abroad. Wildly popular, all copies of the first edition sold out in a single day; it serves as a useful contrast to the melancholy symbolism of THE GREAT GATSBY published the same year. Its tongue-in-cheek satire is nevertheless a perceptive commentary on the roles power and money can play in expanding or limiting women's freedoms, a theme which made Edith Wharton a vocal admirer. The 1949 musical introduced the song "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend, " memorably performed by Marilyn Monroe in the 1953 film. A rollicking adventure of the Roaring Twenties, scarce in the first issue and dust jacket, especially signed. 7.5'' x 4.75''. Original red cloth, gilt-lettered front board and spine. Original unclipped pictorial dust jacket printed in black and green, with illustration by Barton on front panel and dashing portrait of Loos on rear flap. Illustrated throughout by Ralph Barton. "Divine" on table of contents page. 217, [1] pages. Ownership inscription dated January 1926 on front free endpaper, above which Anita Loos has signed and dated (1974) in blue ink. Laid in: two typed letters signed by rare book dealers (David Randall, 1932; Philip Duschnes, 1933) concerning the scarcity of first state copies (as this copy). Dampstaining to verso of rear panel of jacket, also affecting bottom of rear board, else quite a clean copy with very little wear. (Inventory #: 1140)