Anita Loos Rediscovered: Film Treatments and Fiction by Anita Loos, Creator of "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes"
Hollywood historian Beauchamp offers an enticing glimpse into the temperament of prolific and gifted screenwriter, novelist, and playwright Anita Loos (1888-1981) when she observes that Loos "put much thought and effort into appearing carefree." As Beauchamp briskly chronicles Loos' unusual life, and Loos' niece, Mary Anita Loos, shares her personal reminiscences, the "elfin" Loos, author ofGentlemen Prefer Blondes, the film script forThe Women, and dozens of other works, comes into focus as relentlessly hardworking, smart, witty, generous, and profoundly lonely. Loos launched her brilliant career in 1912 by sending an unsolicited story idea to D. W. Griffith. One hit followed another, but happiness eluded Loos once she married an insecure scoundrel who cheated on her, squandered her painstakingly earned fortune, and landed in a psychiatric asylum. The maddening complexities inherent in relationships between men and women, and society's entrenched misogyny, became Loos' endlessly fertile subjects, as is evident in the marvelously piquant and dazzlingly inventive stories and film treatments gathered in this essential addition to American letters and the history of film.Donna SeamanCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved