Helen Lawrenson

Helen Lawrenson (born Helen Strough Brown, October 1, 1907 – April 5, 1982) was an American editor, writer and socialite who gained fame in the 1930s with her acerbic descriptions of New York society. She made friends with great ease, many among the rich and famous, notably author Clare Boothe Luce and statesman Bernard Baruch.

At the height of the Great Depression, she was an editor of Vanity Fair. She later became notorious for an article called "Latins Are Lousy Lovers", published in Esquire in 1936. She also wrote profiles of Joan Crawford, Warren Beatty and Jane Fonda, among many others. She supported herself by writing articles for the rest of her life.

Lawrenson's two autobiographies, Stranger at the Party and Whistling Girl, are full of anecdotes and strong opinions – especially about New York society, politics left and right, and dense with anecdotes and vehement statements not easily corroborated.