The word blurb, meaning an inspired recommendation, comes from an evening in 1907 during an annual trade dinner of New York publishers Where it was customary to distribute copies of new books with special promotional jackets. For his book, humorist Gelett Burgess caused a sensation with a cover drawing of a very attractive and buxom young woman whom he named “Miss Belinda Blurb.” From then on, any flamboyant endorsement would be known as a blurb.