Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: The Illuminating Diary of a Professional Lady

Anita Loos (1888-1981) was an American screenwriter, playwright, and author. In 1912, she became the first female staff scriptwriter in Hollywood, when D. W. Griffith put her on the payroll at Triangle Film Corporation where she wrote movie scripts and supplied film scenarios for Griffith and Douglas Fairbanks. She is best known for her 1925 comic novel, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, which was an instant best seller in thirteen languages (produced as a play in 1926). It was followed by its sequel, But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes. Her other plays include The Whole Town's Talking, The Fall of Eve, The Social Register, Happy Birthday, Gigi, The Amazing Adèle, Chéri, and Gogo Love You.

Jenny McPhee is the author of The Center of Things, a novel, and the coauthor of Girls: Ordinary Girls and Their Extraordinary Pursuits. She is the translator of Paolo Maurensig's Canone Inverso and of Crossing the Threshold of Hope by Pope John Paul II. Her short fiction has appeared in numerous literary journals, including Glimmer Train, Zoetrope, and Brooklyn Review, and her nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New York Times Book Review, and Bookforum, among others. She is on the board of the Bronx Academy of Letters.