In November, 1937, Helen Perry Curtis published Jean & Company, Unlimited. Aimed at young readers, Jean is the story of an American girl's first European trip. Favorably reviewed, Jean & Company was named the Junior Literary Guild Selection of the Month in January, 1938.
In 2020, Laura Gellott published Helen Perry Curtis and the European Trip of a Lifetime, which traces Curtis's life from a Nebraska childhood to New York, New Jersey, and across the European continent during the first decades of the twentieth century. Helen Perry Curtis worked as a museum curator and director; balanced marriage and motherhood with a career as a freelance writer, interior designer, and tour guide; and traveled through Europe with her daughters. The fictionalized account of those trips is Jean & Company, Unlimited.
Helen Perry Curtis and the European Trip of a Lifetime sparked renewed interest in Jean & Company, by then long out of print. Now, thanks to Parafine Press, Jean & Company, Unlimited is available to a new audience: whether the young adult readers for whom it was first intended, or older readers discovering -- or revisiting -- the charming story of an American girl's first encounter with Europe. For all readers, Jean's message is a timeless one. In the words of the original New York Times review, it is a "tempting invitation to travel which stresses the most essential travelers' requirements: good will and a readiness for experience."