I suggest that a close reading of the text reveals the many-faceted brilliance of Loos' satiric and prophetic vision: satiric, because like all satire, her book plays off the fads and follies it ridicules, yet cuts deeper to expose the human inadequacy concealed behind the flamboyant mask prophetic, because an America that seemTHE CANADIAN REVIEW OF AMERICAN STUDIES VOL. Perhaps fifty years after its first appearance in print, we should look at Blondes seriously. Yet to this day, serious consideration of the precise nature of that contribution has, if anything, been inhibited by the durable appeal of Blondes.3 Frederick Hoffman, for example, finds that the continued popularity of Blondes helps perpetuate the false myth of the twenties as" a grotesque world, remembered for sophomoric behavior." 4 If it is true that popularity is no index to critical worth, it is no less true that popularity may hinder accurate assessment of critical worth. 2 Although Wharton's and Faulkner's responses may in part be no more than the expression of passing enthusiasm for an amusing bestseller, both comments also suggest their authors' awareness that Anita Loos' brief book was a significant contribution to American letters. But I wish I had thought of Dorothyfirst. But perhaps that was what you were after, and you have builded better than you knew: I am still rather Victorian in my prejudices regarding the intelligence of women, despite Elinor Wylie and Willa Cather and allthe balance of them. The Andersons even mentioned Ring Lardner in talking to me about it. How many of them, do you think, will ever know that Dorothy has something, that the dancing man, le gigolo, was really somebody? My God, it's charming- best hoax since Witter Binner' s Spectral School in verse - most of them will be completely unmoved- even your rather clumsy gags won't get themand the others will only find it slight and humorous. Please accept my envious congratulations on Dorothythe way you did her through the (intelligence?) of that elegant moron of a cornflower Only you have played a rotten trick on your admiring public. BLOM In January, 1926, Edith Wharton wrote Frank Crowninshield that she was "just reading the Great American novel (at last!) 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,' & I want to know if there are - or will be - others, & if you knew the funny woman, who must be a genius -." Crowninshield did indeed know Anita Loos he sent Wharton's postcard to her, and when Loos suggested to Wharton that she had overpraised the book, Wharton responded: "I meant every word I wrote about 'Blondes.'" 1 In February of the same year, William Faulkner wrote Loos, Ihave just read the Blonde book. In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Īnita Loos and Sexual Economics: "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" T.
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