Diamond Lil

New York: Sheridan House, 1949. First edition thus (updated from 1932 version). Hardcover. Good. 256 pages. Some soiling inside the boards. Cover has some wear. Mae West wrote, produced and starred as Diamond Lil and toured from coast to coast. In 1949 she came back to Broadway. The play was based upon this book. James Watts, Jr., the scholarly dramatic writer of the New York Post, wrote that "Miss West is now a legend and an institution, rather than just an actress, and Diamond Lil is an American Phenomenon, instead of merely a drama. She and it are...modern classics." Her 1928 play, Diamond Lil, about a racy, easygoing, and ultimately very smart lady of the 1890s, became a Broadway hit and cemented West's image in the public's eye. This show had an enduring popularity and West successfully revived it many times during her career. She brought her character, now renamed "Lady Lou", to the screen in She Done Him Wrong (1933). Mary Jane "Mae" West (August 17, 1893 - November 22, 1980) was an American actress, singer, playwright, screenwriter, comedian, and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned seven decades, known for her lighthearted bawdy double entendres and breezy sexual independence. West was active in vaudeville and on the stage in New York City before moving to Hollywood to become a comedian, actress and writer in the motion picture industry, as well as appearing on radio and television. West was one of the more controversial movie stars of her day and encountered many problems, especially censorship. She bucked the system, making comedy out of conventional mores, and the Depression-era audience admired her for it. She wrote books and plays and continued to perform in Las Vegas, in the United Kingdom, on radio and television and to record rock and roll albums. She was once asked about the various efforts to impede her career, to which she replied: "I believe in censorship. I made a fortune out of it."