Dorothy Parker's complete weekly New Yorker column about books and people and the rigors of reviewing.
When, in 1927, Dorothy Parker became a book critic for the New Yorker, she was already a legendary wit, a much-quoted member of the Algonquin Round Table, and an arbiter of literary taste. In the year that she spent as a weekly reviewer, under the rupic Constant Reader, she created what is still the most entertaining book column ever written. Parker's hot takes have lost none of their heat, whether she's taking aim at the evangelist Aimee Semple MacPherson (She can go on like that for hours. Can, hell--does), praising Hemingway's latest collection (He discards detail with magnificent lavishness), or dissenting from the Tao of Pooh (And it is that word 'hummy, ' my darlings, that marks the first place in The House at Pooh Corner at which Tonstant Weader Fwowed up).
Introduced with characteristic wit and sympathy by Sloane Crosley, Constant Reader gathers the complete weekly New Yorker reviews that Parker published from October 1927 through November 1928, with gimlet-eyed appreciations of the high and low, from Isadora Duncan to Al Smith, Charles Lindbergh to Little Orphan Annie, Mussolini to Emily Post
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.
Enough Rope: Poems by Dorothy Parker is a sharp, witty collection that masterfully blends humor and melancholy. With biting cynicism and keen observations on love, loss, and society, Parker's verses capture the complexities of human emotions, making this a timeless exploration of the darker sides of life and relationships.
Self-depricating, bitingly satirical, and surprisingly thought-provoking, Dorothy Parker's first collection of poetry comments on love and the relations between men and women with quick wit and lyrical verse.
First published as a collection in 1926, the poetry featured in Enough Rope reflects the famous wit that Dorothy Parker is so widely loved for. A founding member of the Algonquin Round Table writers' group, Parker often presents a cynical analysis of love, which entertains as much as her verse captivates.
This volume features many of Parker's best-known poetry, including:
Specialist poetry imprint Ragged Hand has proudly republished Enough Rope in this beautiful new volume and will make the perfect addition to the bookshelves of Dorothy Parker fans and those interested in Jazz Age poetry.
In Men I'm not Married To Dorothy Parker's famous wit is on full display as she describes nine men that she did not marry. Some of the descriptions are long and involved others are but a single line such as Lloyd wears washable neckties.
Delightful and funny!
Dorothy Parker (née Rothschild; August 22, 1893 - June 7, 1967) was an American poet, writer, critic, and satirist based in New York; she was 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 works published in magazines, such 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 when her involvement in left-wing politics resulted in her being placed on the Hollywood blacklist.
Dismissive of her own talents, she deplored her reputation as a wisecracker. Nevertheless, both her literary output and reputation for sharp wit have endured. Some of her works have been set to music; adaptations included the operatic song cycle Hate Songs by composer Marcus Paus.
Parker inspired a number of fictional characters in several plays of her day. These included Lily Malone in Philip Barry's Hotel Universe (1932), Mary Hilliard (played by Ruth Gordon) in George Oppenheimer's Here Today (1932), Paula Wharton in Gordon's 1944 play Over Twenty-one (directed by George S. Kaufman), and Julia Glenn in the Kaufman-Moss Hart collaboration Merrily We Roll Along (1934). Kaufman's representation of her in Merrily We Roll Along led Parker, once his Round Table compatriot, to despise him. She also was portrayed as Daisy Lester in Charles Brackett's 1934 novel Entirely Surrounded. She is mentioned in the original introductory lyrics in Cole Porter's song Just One of Those Things from the 1935 Broadway musical Jubilee, which have been retained in the standard interpretation of the song as part of the Great American Songbook.
Prince released The Ballad of Dorothy Parker in 1987; it was the first song recorded in his Chanhassen, Minnesota studio home. Those closest to him at the time suggest the association between the poet and the waitress by the same name in the song is a coincidence, but Dorothy Parker died on Prince's 9th birthday and chances are this brought her to his attention prior to writing the song.
Parker is featured as a character in the novel The Dorothy Parker Murder Case by George Baxt (1984), in a series of Algonquin Round Table Mysteries by J. J. Murphy (2011- ), and in Ellen Meister's novel Farewell, Dorothy Parker (2013). She is the main character in Love For Miss Dottie, a short story by Larry N Mayer, which was selected by writer Mary Gaitskill for the collection Best New American Voices 2009 (Harcourt).
She has been portrayed on film and television by Dolores Sutton in F. Scott Fitzgerald in Hollywood (1976), Rosemary Murphy in Julia (1977), Bebe Neuwirth in Dash and Lilly (1999), and Jennifer Jason Leigh in Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994). Neuwirth was nominated for an Emmy Award for her performance, and Leigh received a number of awards and nominations, including a Golden Globe nomination.
The Wild Colonials song, Vicious Circle from Life As We Know It EP (2007) is about Dorothy Parker. The chorus lyrics are, I know how Dorothy Parker felt with someone in her way.
Television creator Amy Sherman-Palladino named her production company 'Dorothy Parker Drank Here Productions' in tribute to Parker.
Tucson actress Lesley Abrams wrote and performed the one-woman show Dorothy Parker's Last Call in 2009 in Tucson, Arizona at the Winding Road Theater Ensemble. She reprised the role at the Live Theatre Workshop in Tucson in 2014. The play was selected to be part of the Capital Fringe Festival in DC in 2010. ...(wikipedia.org)
Published in 1926 Enough Rope was Parker's first collection of poetry. The collection sold very well and garnered impressive reviews. The Nation described it as caked with a salty humor, rough with splinters of disillusion, and tarred with a bright black authenticity. The New York Times referred to it as flapper verse, Enough Rope affirm Parker's reputation for sparkling wit
In Men I'm not Married To Dorothy Parker's famous wit is on full display as she describes nine men that she did not marry. Some of the descriptions are long and involved others are but a single line such as Lloyd wears washable neckties.
Delightful and funny