Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby in 1925. It his 3rd, or 4th, novel depending on how you categorise 1922's The Diamond as Big as the Ritz. It is seen, by many, to be the definitive work on the era of prohibition and the rise of Jazz. The book has been cinematized four times, 1926 (this version has no known surviving copies), 1949, 1974, and 2013.
A few days I learned there was another book published in 1925 that skewers the era from a different angle, a book that Fitzgerald himself admired, and which has been made into a film only twice, in 1928 (a version co-written by the author, but also lost), & 1953.
The book, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, was written by Anita Loos and in it I see foreshadowed two other books, both made into successful films.
The book began life as a series of short sketches in Harper's Bazaar in the summer of 1925 and then collected and released in November of the same year.
It outsold The Great Gatsby. It was made into a successful musical, and then that film, where Marylin Monroe played the lead character.
Looking through the book, I've not started reading it yet, I couldn't help but think of Truman Capote's novella Breakfast at Tiffany's, where a woman from middle USA escapes to the city and becomes a fashionable socialite. The film is a little gentler on describing her activity than the book, but films are wont to do such. And the diary style delivery was reminiscent of Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones Diary, a book which also started life as shorter works. I remember fewer songs in the adaption to film, though the soundtrack was well recieved.
If you've read The Great Gatsby, but not Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, you can rectify that egregious lapse by purchasing the copy shown in the picture.
text and picture by stuartcturnbull