Dorothy Parker, born on this day in 1893, was one of American literature’s wittiest and most fascinating figures. Her prolific output of poetry, short fiction, screenplays, essays, and criticism– all infused with her keen wordplay and biting humor– remains as sharp, vibrant, and engrossing as ever. Her personal life was equally riveting too, between her interpersonal dramas, her tempestuous romances, her mental health struggles, and her social activism. If you’d like to read up on this iconic author, here are some books and films written by and about Dorothy Parker that you can check out using your Livingston Library card. (Descriptions provided by the publishers.)
By Dorothy Parker
Enough Rope: Poems (also available as an ebook and e-audiobook)
Known as the wittiest woman in America and a founder of the fabled Algonquin Round Table, Dorothy Parker was also one of the Jazz Age’s most beloved poets. Her verbal dexterity and cynical humor were on full display in the many poems she published in Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and Life, and collected in her first book in 1926. Now available as a stand-alone edition, the famous humorist’s debut collection–a runaway bestseller in 1926–ranges from lighthearted self-deprecation to acid-tongued satire, all the while gleefully puncturing sentimental cliches about relations between men and women.
Sunset Gun: Poems (available as an ebook and e-audiobook)
In this follow up to her best-selling debut collection of poetry (Enough Rope from 1926) Dorothy Parker published Sunset Gun (1928), her second of three volumes of short verse. One of the 20th century’s most celebrated and renowned humorists, Parker once again delivers a biting, satiric and insightful look at love, life and literature in this brilliant collection.
Complete Broadway: 1918 – 1923
Dorothy Parker holds a place in history as one of New York’s most beloved writers. Now, for the first time in nearly a century, the public is invited to enjoy Mrs. Parker’s sharp wit and biting commentary on the Jazz Age hits and flops in this first-ever published collection of her groundbreaking Broadway reviews.Starting when she was twenty-four at Vanity Fair as New York’s only female theater critic, Mrs. Parker reviewed some of the biggest names of the era: the Barrymores, George M. Cohan, W.C. Fields, Helen Hayes, Al Jolson, Eugene ONeil, Will Rogers, and the Ziegfeld Follies. Her words of praise and contempt for the dramas, comedies, musicals, and revues are just as fresh and funny today as they were in the age of speakeasies and bathtub gin. Annotated with a notes section by Kevin C. Fitzpatrick, president of the Dorothy Parker Society, the volume shares Parkers outspoken opinions of a great era of live theater in America, from a time before radio, talking pictures, and television decimated attendance. Complete Broadway, 1918-1923 provides a fascinating glimpse of Broadway in its Golden Era and literary life in New York through the eyes of a renowned theater critic.
Men I’m Not Married To (available as an ebook and e-audiobook)
A collection of observations about the male of the species from one of the 20th century’s most celebrated and renowned humorists, Men I’m Not Married To is a series of descriptions of nine men, all of whom Parker managed to avoid accompanying down the aisle. Some longer, some very short, each of these descriptions shows Parker’s full range of wit, sardonic humor and wry cynicism.
Here Lies: The Collected Stories of Dorothy Parker
Dorothy Parker was an American poet and satirist, best known for her wit, wisecracks, and eye for 20th century urban foibles. From a conflicted and unhappy childhood, Parker rose to acclaim, both for her literary output in such venues as The New Yorker and as a founding member of the Algonquin Round Table. Following the breakup of the circle, Parker traveled to Hollywood to pursue screenwriting. Her successes there, including two Academy Award nominations, were curtailed as her involvement in left-wing politics led to a place on the infamous Hollywood blacklist. Parker went through three marriages (two to the same man) and survived several suicide attempts, but grew increasingly dependent on alcohol. Dismissive of her own talents, she deplored her reputation as a “wisecracker”. Nevertheless, her literary output and reputation for her sharp wit have endured.
The Portable Dorothy Parker (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
The second revision in sixty years, this sublime collection ranges over the verse, stories, essays, and journalism of one of the twentieth century’s most quotable authors. In this new twenty-first-century edition, devoted admirers will be sure to find their favorite verse and stories. But a variety of fresh material has also been added to create a fuller, more authentic picture of her life’s work. At the heart of her serious work lie her political writings dealing with race, labor, and international politics. “A Dorothy Parker Sampler” blends the sublime and the silly with the terrifying, a sort of tasting menu of verse, stories, essays, political journalism, a speech on writing, plus a catchy off-the-cuff rhyme she never thought to write down.
The introduction of two new sections is intended to provide the richest possible sense of Parker herself. “Self-Portrait” reprints an interview she did in 1956 with The Paris Review, part of a famed ongoing series of conversations (“Writers at Work”) conducted with the best of twentieth-century writers. “Letters- 1905-1962,” which might be subtitled “Mrs. Parker Completely Uncensored,” presents correspondence written over the period of a half century, beginning in 1905 when twelve-year-old Dottie wrote her father during a summer vacation on Long Island, and concluding with a 1962 missive from Hollywood describing her fondness for Marilyn Monroe.
A Star is Born (available on DVD and Blu-Ray, or streaming on Hoopla)
Esther Blodgett (Janet Gaynor) is just another starry-eyed farm kid trying to break into the movies. Waitressing at a Hollywood party, she catches the eye of alcoholic star Norman Maine (Fredric March), is given a shot at stardom, and is caught up in the Hollywood glamor machine . She and her idol Norman marry; but as her star rises, his comes crashing down. Dorothy Parker was nominated for an Oscar for co-writing the screenplay along with Alan Campbell and Robert Carson.
The Little Foxes (DVD)
Regina Giddens (Bette Davis) is a woman who will stop at nothing to outwit her brothers in running the family business– even if it means sacrificing the health of her husband or the love of her young daughter. Dorothy Parker co-wrote the screenplay for this film adaptation of Lillian Hellman’s famous play.
Saboteur (DVD)
Parker also contributed to the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock’s wartime thriller about a Los Angeles aircraft factory worker (Robert Cummings) who witnesses his plant’s firebombing by a Nazi agent, and is framed for that act himself.
About Dorothy Parker
The Manhattan Girls: A Novel of Dorothy Parker and Her Friends by Gill Paul
It’s a 1920s version of Sex and the City, as Dorothy Parker—one of the wittiest women who ever wielded a pen—and her three friends navigate life, love, and careers in New York City. Perfect for fans of Fiona Davis, Beatriz Williams, and Renée Rosen. NEW YORK CITY 1921: The war is over, fashions are daring, and bootleg liquor is abundant. Here four extraordinary women form a bridge group that grows into a firm friendship. Dorothy Parker: renowned wit, member of the Algonquin Round Table, and more fragile than she seems. Jane Grant: first female reporter for the New York Times, and determined to launch a new magazine she calls The New Yorker. Winifred Lenihan: beautiful and talented Broadway actress, a casting-couch target. And Peggy Leech: magazine assistant by day, brilliant novelist by night. Their romances flourish and falter while their goals sometimes seem impossible to reach and their friendship deepens against the backdrop of turbulent New York City, where new speakeasies open and close, jazz music flows through the air, and bathtub gin fills their glasses. They gossip, they comfort each other, and they offer support through the setbacks. But their biggest challenge is keeping their dear friend Dottie safe from herself. In this brilliant new novel from the bestselling and acclaimed author of Jackie and Maria and The Secret Wife, readers will fall right into Jazz Age New York and into the inner lives of these groundbreaking, influential women.
Farewell, Dorothy Parker by Ellen Meister
When it comes to movie critics Violet Epps is a powerhouse voice. Equally unafraid of big Hollywood names and public opinion, her biting reviews are widely quoted. But when it comes to her own life, Violet finds herself unable to speak up–paralyzed by crippling social anxiety. When a chance encounter at the famous Algonquin Hotel unleashes the feisty spirit of the long-dead Dorothy Parker, the famous literary critic of the 1920’s, Violet thinks she is going crazy.
Dorothy Parker: What Fresh Hell Is This? By Marion Meade
In this lively, absorbing biography, Marion Meade illuminates both the charm and the dark side of Dorothy Parker, exploring her days of wicked wittiness at the Algonquin Round Table with the likes of Robert Benchley, George Kaufman, and Harold Ross, and in Hollywood with S. J. Perelman, William Faulkner, and Lillian Hellman. At the dazzling center of it all, Meade gives us the flamboyant, self-destructive, and brilliant Dorothy Parker.
A Journey Into Dorothy Parker’s New York by Kevin C. Fitzpatrick
A journey into the city of theaters, bars and hotel rooms where Dorothy Parker sharpened her wit, polished her writing and captured the edgy mood of her times. Richly illustrated with the art and design of this period, this title captures the New York that inspired Mrs. Parker, a city that would later take inspiration from the formidable lady herself.
Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (DVD)
Jennifer Jason Leigh gives an acclaimed performance as Dorothy Parker in Alan Rudolph’s 1994 film about the famed lunch scene at the Algonquin Hotel’s Round Table, home to a circle of mutually supportive young artists that defined New York sophistication and a literate era of wit and intellect. The star-studded cast also includes Campbell Scott, Matthew Broderick, Jennifer Beals, Peter Gallagher, Wallace Shawn, Andrew McCarthy, Martha Plimpton, Stanley Tucci, and Lili Taylor.
—Joe, Adult Services & Acquisitions