Liza Dalby is an American anthropologist and writer, best known for her book "Geisha," which she wrote based on her unique experience of becoming the first Westerner to be accepted as an apprentice geisha in Japan. Born in 1950, Dalby's deep interest in Japanese culture led her to pursue a Ph.D. in anthropology from Stanford University, focusing on Japanese social structure and aesthetics. Her fieldwork and insights into the geisha community have provided invaluable contributions to the understanding of this enigmatic aspect of Japanese society. Dalby is also known for other works related to Japanese culture, such as "Kimono: Fashioning Culture" and "The Tale of Murasaki," a historical novel about the Heian period writer Murasaki Shikibu. Her work is characterized by a personal and immersive approach to ethnography, weaving together scholarly research with her own experiences and narratives.