Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (novel) Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (novel) Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: The Intimate Diary of a Professional Lady is a comic novel written by Anita Loos, first published in 1925. It is one of several famous novels published that year to chronicle the so-called Jazz Age, including Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" and Van Vechten's "Firecrackers". Loos was inspired to write the book after watching a sexy blonde turn intellectual H. L. Mencken into a lovestruck schoolboy. Mencken, a close friend, actually enjoyed the work and saw to it that it was published. Originally published as a magazine series in "Harper's Bazaar", it was published
Anita Loos her work; he was, in the words of his wife, "a man who enjoyed ill health." It was the opinion of New York's leading psychiatrist, Smith Ely Jelliffe, that she was to blame and that in order for Emerson to "get better" she would have to give up her career. She resolved to retire after her next book, "But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes", a sequel to "Blondes" she had promised "Harper's Bazaar". On the further advice of the psychiatrist, the couple had planned another European vacation. At the last minute, Emerson feigned being unwell and insisted Loos continue alone. Arriving in