Sex goddess, Hollywood star, transgressive playwright, author, blues singer, and vaudeville brat---Mae West remains the twentieth century's greatest comedienne. She made an everlasting mark in trailblazing Broadway plays such as Sex and The Constant Sinner and in films such as She Done Him Wrong, Klondike Annie, and I'm No Angel. Simon Louvish, biographer of W. C. Fields, the Marx Brothers, Laurel and Hardy, and Keystone's Mack Sennett, brings Mae to vibrant life in this unparalleled new biography. He charts her amazing seven decades in show business, from early years in teenage summer stock to her last reincarnation as 1960s gay icon and grande dame of Hollywood survivors. Mae West: It Ain't No Sin is the first biography to make use of Mae's recently uncovered personal papers, offering an unprecedented view into the endless creative drive and daring wit of this legendary star.

With a foreword by the actor, director, and playwright described as "the greatest living exponent of Groucho Marx’s material” by The New York Times, and text by the author of Monkey Business, a biography of the Marx Brothers, this bio brings the wisecracking, cigar-chomping, eyebrow-raising comedian to life on the page. Groucho discusses such issues as the film Duck Soup , the rules of comedy, the directors he worked with, and his talented brothers Harpo and Chico (" You know, of course, those two aren’t really acting when they play those scenes. They’re just being themselves .”).