In 1937, Helen Perry Curtis published Jean & Company, Unlimited. Chosen in 1938 as a Junior Literary Guild Selection of the Month, Jean is the charming account of an American girl's first encounter with Europe. In Helen Perry Curtis and the European Trip of a Lifetime, author Laura Gellott tells the story of the woman and the real-life events behind a beloved childhood book. She traces Helen'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 throughout Europe with her daughters. The fictionalized account of those trips is Jean & Company, Unlimited.