Loos, Anita

(US, 1888–1981)

Loos was something of a prodigy, working as a screenwriter in Hollywood in her teens. She numbered D. W. Griffith and the iconic Louise Brooks amongst her friends. Her novel Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1925) is the fictitious diary of Lorelei Lee, a not-so-dumb blonde who certainly believes that diamonds are a girl's best friend. In a thinly veiled satire of the Lost Generation, the novel recounts Lorelei's experiences in Europe before she returns to America to marry her millionaire. Lorelei's social and artistic pretensions are betrayed by a series of misspellings and malapropisms. But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (1928) features Lorelei's attempts to embrace the world of literature whilst recounting the misadventures of her friend Dorothy. The novels are comic exposés of the world of the flapper with a subtle subtext of hypocrisy and violence. Loos's autobiography, A Girl Like I (1966), is characterized by a cynical, knowing wit.

Dorothy Parker, Damon Runyon  GK