Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
LOOS, ANITA. GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES. NEW YORK NY BONI AND LIVERIGHT PUB 1925., 1925.
Price: US$150.00 + shipping
Description: VG/NONE. 12TH PRINTING OF APRIL 1926 / SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR ON THE FRONT FREE ENDPAPER / ILLUSTRATED BY RALPH BARTON QUARTER BOUND DECORATED PAPER COVERED BOARDS WITH RED CLOTH SPINE AND TITLED PAPER LABEL ON THE FRONT COVER. SPINE IS DARKENED WITH GILT TITLES VERY DULLED AND PAPER COVERED BOARDS TANNED AT THE EXTREMETIES. A NICE TIGHT COPY WITH CLEAN TEXT. Binding is HARDCOVER.
Seller: JOHN LUTSCHAK BOOKS, BURLINGTON, WI, U.S.A.
Price: US$150.00 + shipping
Description: 217 pp. Intimately Illustrated by Ralph Barton. 12mo, publisher's cloth-backed decorated paper boards. Ninth printing, March, 1926. Good to very good with rubbing and use at corners and extremities. Inscribed and signed by Anita Loos, Palm Beach, Feb. 7, 1927. On the pastedown, opposite the inscription, is mounted a newspaper photograph of Anita Loos, in bathing dress at a Florida resort.
Seller: Jeffrey H. Marks, Rare Books, ABAA, Rochester, NY, U.S.A.
Loos, Anita & Barton, Ralph. GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES. Boni & Liveright ( 1925 ), 1925.
Price: US$174.00 + shipping
Description: GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES, Boni & Liveright, 1926, first edition, later printing,slight wear to the fore edge corner tips and bottom edge of the spine whose gilt lettering is a bit dulled, else a tight vg copy in the publishers original binding. Illustrated by Ralph Barton. INSCRIBED by the author. The source book for the 2 films of the same name.
Seller: THE FINE BOOKS COMPANY / A.B.A.A / 1979, ROCHESTER, MI, U.S.A.
Loos, Anita. GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES. Boni & Liveright, NY, 1925, 1925.
Price: US$345.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: SIGNED AND INSCRIBED (long inscription 'for noble work in uplifting blondes') 12 mo. hardcover, VG in red spine and blue and white ornate boards with paste-on. The source book for the 2 films of the same name. 12th printing, 1926. No Dust Jacket. Text body is clean, 217 pp.
Seller: Virginia Martin, aka bookwitch, Concord, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$1750.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: Two volumes, each inscribed, each 8vo, full red crushed morocco with gilt detail & raised bands. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, 217 pages, New York; Boni & Liveright, 1925. Second printing. Inscribed on the flyleaf: "With thanks to darling Brown for proving my theory. Anita Loos." But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes, 248 pages, New York; Boni & Liveright, 1928. Second printing. Inscribed on the flyleaf: "All love to my darling Brown from Anita Loos." Near fine copies. Amazing to find a finely bound matched set, inscribed, of the most classic of Loos's titles. Loos was Hollywood's foremost woman playwright, screenwriter, and novelist.
Seller: Argosy Book Store, ABAA, ILAB, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$2254.83 + shipping
Description: First edition, first printing, presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, "I am happy to have this copy of my book with David Tomlinson, with all best wishes, Anita Loos". This copy is additionally inscribed by the author's mother, Minerva Smith, on the same page, "for Charles and Eleanor, from Anita's mother". The author's satire of the Jazz Age was an instant best-seller and has since been recognized as a classic of the roaring twenties. The work was also popular among the modernists: it was hailed by Edith Wharton as "the Great American Novel", and was read by James Joyce when he was half-blind and working on the first draft of Finnegans Wake. The novel was adapted into a musical in 1949 and a subsequent film in 1953, starring Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe. This copy is in the second state, with "Divine" corrected to "Devine" on the contents page. Provenance: from the collection of the Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts (1941-2021), with his posthumous bookplate. Octavo. Original red cloth, spine and front cover lettered in gilt. With dust jacket. Illustrations to the text by Ralph Barton. Hollywood Book Store ticket to rear pastedown. Spine gently cocked, extremities lightly rubbed and bumped, slight foxing to edges and outer leaves; unclipped jacket rubbed and marked, a few faint damp stains, extremities lightly chipped with some small loss to head of rear panel, small portion a head of spine panel discreetly reinforced with tissue: a very good copy in very good jacket.
Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom
Loos, Anita. GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES. Boni & Liveright, New York, 1925.
Price: US$2800.00 + shipping
Description: 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.
Seller: Type Punch Matrix, Silver Spring, MD, U.S.A.