James Philip Head is an author and a law partner in Virginia. While a student at the University of Maryland, he discovered a gilt-edged folio of Charles Dana Gibson's The Social Ladder in the stacks of the campus library, starting him on a journey to learn more about Gibson and the illustrators of beauty. He became captivated by the talent, fame, and subsequent obscurity of Howard Chandler Christy and began amassing the largest private collections of documents, photographs, and other material related to the artist. Over the years, he has interviewed Christy's former models, family members, and others who knew him and ultimately engaged research assistants throughout the country to help him uncover the true, untold story of Christy and his wife, Nancy. He is a law partner with Williams Mullen, P.C., in Tysons Corner, Virginia, where he concentrates in estate planning and trust and estate litigation. He lives in Chantilly, Virginia, with his wife Rita, and daughter Christianna.