Beschreibung:

LOOS, ANITA Gentlemen Prefer Blondes . New York: Boni & Liveright, 1925. First edition, first issue with 'Divine' for 'Devine' on the contents leaf, signed by Loos in 1974, Barton Currie's copy with his booklabel and early bookseller letters laid-in regarding the rarity of the volume with the first issue contents leaf. Publisher's gilt stamped cloth, in original dust jacket, housed in (Currie's) lettered chemise. 7 1/2 x 4 1/2 inches (19 x 12.5 cm); 217 pp., illustrated. Soiling and an old dampstain to the jacket which is generally devoid of any chipping, a contemporary ownership signature to the front flyleaf, the "A" in the author's signature somewhat weak, a few pencil marks in the text. The letters to Currie laid into this copy from from New York booksellers Philip Duschnes and David A. Randall were prompted by Currie's 1931 book Fishers of Books in which he listed and wrote favorably about Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. The Duschnes letter claims the correct first issue to be one of four known copies with the contents leaf bound-in before the correction was made (this leaf a cancel in later issues) and the very few copies in the current auction record reporting this certainly supports a low figure. Loos' novel was the basis for the 1953 film of the same name starring Marilyn Monroe C