Dorothy Parker (1) (1893–1967)
Author of The Portable Dorothy Parker [1973 Deluxe Edition]
For other authors named Dorothy Parker, see the disambiguation page.
About the Author
Poet and short story writer Dorothy Parker was born in New Jersey on August 22, 1893. When she was 5, her mother died and her father, a clothes salesman, remarried. Parker had a great antipathy toward her stepmother and refused to speak to her. She attended parochial school and Miss Dana's school show more in Morristown, New Jersey, for a brief time before dropping out at age 14. A voracious reader, she decided to pursue a career in literature. She began her career by writing verse as well as captions for a fashion magazine. During the years of her greatest fame, Dorothy Parker was known primarily as a writer of light verse, an essential member of the Algonquin Round Table, and a caustic and witty critic of literature and society. She is remembered now as an almost legendary figure of the 1920s and 1930s. Her reviews and staff contributions to three of the most sophisticated magazines of this century, Vanity Fair, the New Yorker, and Esquire, were notable for their put-downs. For all her highbrow wit, however, Dorothy Parker was liberal, even radical, in her political views, and the hard veneer of brittle toughness that she showed to the world was often a shield for frustrated idealism and soft sensibilities. The best of her fiction is marked by a balance of ironic detachment and sympathetic compassion, as in "Big Blonde," which won the O. Henry Award for 1929 and is still her best-remembered and most frequently anthologized story. The best of Dorothy Parker is readily and compactly accessible in The Portable Dorothy Parker. Her own selection of stories and verse for the original edition of that compilation, published in 1944, remains intact in the revised edition, but included also are additional stories, reviews, and articles. Parker died of a heart attack at the age of 73 in 1967. In her will, she bequeathed her estate to the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. foundation. Following King's death, her estate was passed on to the NAACP. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Works by Dorothy Parker
Dorothy Parker : Selected Stories (Big Blonde, Too Bad, Song of Shirt, Mr. Durant, Diary of a New York Lady, Standard… (1995) 15 copies
Alpine Giggle Week: How Dorothy Parker Set Out to Write the Great American Novel and Ended Up in a TB Colony Atop an… (2014) 9 copies
Here We Are 6 copies
The Standard of Living 5 copies
You Were Perfectly Fine 3 copies
Spreekt u maar 3 copies
Arrangement in Black and White 3 copies
Little Curtis 3 copies
The Last Tea 3 copies
Clothe the Naked 3 copies
The Indispensable Dorothy Parker 3 copies
Soldiers of the Republic 3 copies
Glory in the Daytime 3 copies
New York To Detroit 3 copies
The Garter (Short Stories) 2 copies
The Algonquin Wits: A Crackling Collection of Bon Mots, Wisecracks, Epigrams and Gags (1968) 2 copies
Résumé 2 copies
General Review of the Sex Situation 2 copies
Comment [poem] 2 copies
From the Diary of a New York Lady 2 copies
Horsie 2 copies
One Perfect Rose [poem] 2 copies
The Lovely Leave 2 copies
Mr. Durant 2 copies
The Waltz 2 copies
The Wonderful Old Gentleman 2 copies
Song of the Shirt, 1941 2 copies
Mrs. Hofstadter on Josephine Street 2 copies
Too Bad 2 copies
Lady With A Lamp 2 copies
Just a Little One 2 copies
The Little Hours 2 copies
The Bolt Behind the Blue 2 copies
Sentiment 2 copies
Cousin Larry 2 copies
Pictures in the Smoke 1 copy
The Searched Soul 1 copy
The Maid-Servant at the Inn 1 copy
The Gentlest Lady 1 copy
The Trusting Heart 1 copy
Penelope 1 copy
Bohemia 1 copy
Mortal Enemy 1 copy
George Sand 1 copy
Walter Savage Landor 1 copy
George Gissing 1 copy
Alfred, Lord Tennyson 1 copy
Fulfillment 1 copy
Surprise 1 copy
Daylight Saving 1 copy
Charles Dickens 1 copy
On Being a Woman 1 copy
Afternoon 1 copy
A Dream Lies Dead 1 copy
The Homebody 1 copy
Rondeau Redoublé 1 copy
Second Love 1 copy
Fair Weather 1 copy
The Whistling Girl 1 copy
Story 1 copy
Frustration 1 copy
Heald 1 copy
Alexandre Dumas and His Son 1 copy
Oscar Wilde 1 copy
Thomas Carlyle 1 copy
To Newcastle 1 copy
The Choice 1 copy
Landscape 1 copy
Nocturne 1 copy
Interview 1 copy
Fighting Words 1 copy
Experience 1 copy
Neither Bloody Nor Bowed 1 copy
The Burned Child 1 copy
Godmother 1 copy
The Red Dress 1 copy
Roundel 1 copy
Victoria 1 copy
Observations 1 copy
D. G. Rossetti 1 copy
Parable for a Certain Virgin 1 copy
Bric-à-Brac 1 copy
Interior 1 copy
Reuben's Childern 1 copy
Symptom Recital 1 copy
On Cheating the Fiddler 1 copy
There Was One 1 copy
Incurable 1 copy
The Second Oldest Story 1 copy
Partial Comfort 1 copy
Harriet Beecher Stowe 1 copy
Post-Graduate 1 copy
The Apple Tree 1 copy
For a Favorite Granddaughter 1 copy
Summary 1 copy
The Sea 1 copy
Guinevere at Her Fireside 1 copy
Transition 1 copy
From a Letter from Lesbia 1 copy
Sweet Violets 1 copy
Prayer for a New Mother 1 copy
Midnight 1 copy
Ultimatum 1 copy
The Willow 1 copy
Of a Woman, Dead Young 1 copy
Iseult of Brittany 1 copy
Sonnet on an Alpine Night 1 copy
Requiescat 1 copy
Ballade of a Talked-Off Ear 1 copy
Prologue to a Saga 1 copy
Sight 1 copy
Prisoner 1 copy
The Lady's Reward 1 copy
Temps Perdu 1 copy
Autumn Valentine 1 copy
Trade Winds [1938 film] — Screenwriter — 1 copy
Suzy [1936 film] — Screenwriter — 1 copy
Star Light, Star Bright— 1 copy
Song of One of the Girls 1 copy
Liebestod 1 copy
After Spanish Proverb 1 copy
Dilemma 1 copy
Theory 1 copy
Superfluous Advice 1 copy
A Fairly Sad Tale 1 copy
The Last Question 1 copy
But Not Forgotten 1 copy
Pour Prendre Congé 1 copy
Two-Volume Novel 1 copy
Rhyme Against Living 1 copy
Wisdom 1 copy
Coda 1 copy
Prayer for a Prayer 1 copy
Distance 1 copy
Sanctuary 1 copy
The Evening Primrose 1 copy
The Flaw in Paganism 1 copy
Salome's Dancing-Lesson 1 copy
Cherry White 1 copy
My Own 1 copy
Solace 1 copy
Little Words 1 copy
Tombstones in the Starlight 1 copy
Garden-Spot 1 copy
Ornithology for Beginners 1 copy
Vers Démodé 1 copy
Lullaby 1 copy
The Immortals 1 copy
News Item 1 copy
The Function of the Writer 1 copy
The Banquet of Crow 1 copy
Interior Desecration 1 copy
Here Comes the Groom 1 copy
Week's End 1 copy
My Home Town 1 copy
Not Enough 1 copy
Destructive Decoration 1 copy
Any Porch 1 copy
Sorry, the Line is Busy 1 copy
In the Throes 1 copy
For R. C. B. 1 copy
New York at 6:30 P.M. 1 copy
Self-Portrait 1 copy
Henrik Ibsen: Hedda Gabler 1 copy
Leo Tolstoi: Redemption 1 copy
J. M. Barrie: Dear Brutus 1 copy
Kindly Accept Substitutes 1 copy
Just Around Pooh Corner 1 copy
No More Fun 1 copy
An American Du Barry 1 copy
The Game 1 copy
Such a Pretty Little Picture 1 copy
Ethereal Mildness 1 copy
I Live on Your Visits 1 copy
Lolita 1 copy
But the One on the Right 1 copy
Story {poem} 1 copy
Parker Dorothy 1 copy
Bohemia [poem] 1 copy
The Sayings of Dorothy Parker (Duckworth Sayings Series) by Dorothy Parker (1995-04-06) (1726) 1 copy
Una imagen perfecta 1 copy
Guinevere at Her Fireside" 1 copy
War Song 1 copy
Parker, Dorothy Archive 1 copy
[No title] 1 copy
Big Loira 1 copy
“De Profundis” 1 copy
Dikter 1 copy
Enough Rope - A Book of Light Verse by Dorothy Parker;With the Introductory Essay 'The Jazz Age Literature of the Lost… (2022) 1 copy
Enough Rope Poem 1 copy
Literary Rotarians 1 copy
Hero Worship 1 copy
Men 1 copy
L'Envoi 1 copy
Testament 1 copy
I Shall Come Back 1 copy
Condolence 1 copy
A Portrait 1 copy
Portrait of the Artist 1 copy
Chant for Dark Hours 1 copy
Unfortunate Coincidence 1 copy
Inventory 1 copy
Now at Liberty 1 copy
Plea 1 copy
Pattern 1 copy
De Profundis 1 copy
They Party 1 copy
Ballade of a Great Weariness 1 copy
Renunciation 1 copy
The White Lady 1 copy
The Veteran 1 copy
Verse for a Certain Dog 1 copy
Prophetic Soul 1 copy
Godspeed 1 copy
Song of Perfect Propriety 1 copy
Social Note 1 copy
Ballade at Thirty-Five 1 copy
The Thin Edge 1 copy
Love Song 1 copy
Philosophy 1 copy
For an Unknown Lady 1 copy
The Leal 1 copy
Faute de Mieux 1 copy
I Know I Have Been Happiest 1 copy
August 1 copy
Home is the Sailor 1 copy
Epitaph 1 copy
Oh, Look—A Good Book! 1 copy
Words, Words, Words 1 copy
Edmund Wilson: The American Earthquake; Jack Kerouac: The Subterraneans; Edna Ferber: Ice Palace 1 copy
Threnody 1 copy
The Small Hours 1 copy
The False Friends 1 copy
The Trifler 1 copy
A Well-Worn Story 1 copy
Convalescent 1 copy
The Dark Girl's Rhyme 1 copy
Light of Love 1 copy
The Dramatists 1 copy
Wail 1 copy
The Satin Dress 1 copy
Somebody's Song 1 copy
Braggart 1 copy
Epitaph for a Darling Lady 1 copy
Paths 1 copy
Hearthside 1 copy
Rainy Night 1 copy
The New Love 1 copy
Anecdote 1 copy
For a Sad Lady 1 copy
Recurrence 1 copy
Story of Mrs. W— 1 copy
A Very Short Song 1 copy
Associated Works
Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama (1995) — Contributor, some editions — 929 copies
American Poetry: The Twentieth Century, Volume One: Henry Adams to Dorothy Parker (2000) — Contributor — 439 copies
The 50 Funniest American Writers: An Anthology of Humor from Mark Twain to The Onion (2011) — Contributor — 247 copies
First Fiction: An Anthology of the First Published Stories by Famous Writers (1994) — Contributor — 183 copies
Poetry Speaks Expanded: Hear Poets Read Their Own Work from Tennyson to Plath (2007) — Contributor — 152 copies
The Vicious Circle: Mystery and Crime Stories by Members of the Algonquin Round Table (2007) — Contributor — 87 copies
The Glorious American Essay: One Hundred Essays from Colonial Times to the Present (2020) — Contributor — 83 copies
Out of the Best Books: An Anthology of Literature, Vol. 3: Intelligent Family Living (1967) — Contributor — 33 copies
Fifty Years of the American Short Story from the O. Henry Awards 1919-1970 (1970) — Contributor — 13 copies
Great American Short Stories: O. Henry Memorial Prize Winning Stories, 1919-1934 (1935) — Contributor — 10 copies
The Best Short Stories of 1931 and the Yearbook of the American Short Story (1931) — Contributor — 7 copies
Our lives : American labor stories — Contributor — 6 copies
Fifty Years of the American Short Story from the O. Henry Awards 1919-1970, Volume II (1970) — Contributor — 5 copies
The Best from Cosmopolitan — Contributor — 4 copies
The Best Short Stories of 1928 and the Yearbook of the American Short Story (1928) — Contributor — 3 copies
Tredive mesterfortællinger — Author, some editions — 3 copies
Wives and Lovers — Contributor — 3 copies
Schöne Ferien — Contributor — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Parker, Dorothy
- Legal name
- Rothschild, Dorothy (birth name)
- Other names
- Dot
Dottie - Birthdate
- 1893-08-22
- Date of death
- 1967-06-07
- Burial location
- NAACP Headquarters, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Long Branch, New Jersey, USA
- Place of death
- New York, New York, USA
- Cause of death
- heart attack
- Places of residence
- Morristown, New Jersey, USA
Hollywood, California, USA
New York, New York, USA - Education
- convent
- Occupations
- journalist
writer
satirist
drama critic
screenwriter
poet (show all 8)
short story writer
columnist - Relationships
- Rothschild, Martin (uncle)
Campbell, Alan (husband)
Hellman, Lillian (friend, executor) - Organizations
- Algonquin Round Table
Vogue
Vanity Fair
The New Yorker
Paramount Pictures - Awards and honors
- American Academy of Arts and Letters (Literature ∙ 1959)
O. Henry Award (1929)
New Jersey Hall of Fame (2014) - Short biography
- Dorothy Parker, née Rothschild, was born in the West End section of Long Branch, New Jersey, to J. Henry and Elizabeth Rothschild. Her mother died when she was four years old. She attended a Catholic grammar school and a finishing school in Morristown, NJ, and her formal education ended when she was 14.
In 1914, she sold her first poem to Vanity Fair. At age 22, she took an editorial job at Vogue, and continued to write poems for newspapers and magazines. In 1917, she joined Vanity Fair. That same year, she married Edwin P. Parker, a stockbroker, but they divorced in 1928.
S In 1919, she became a founding member of the Algonquin Round Table, the informal gathering of writers who lunched at the Algonquin Hotel in New York City. In 1922, Parker published her first short story and over the years, she contributed poetry, fiction and book reviews as the "Constant Reader" columnist.
In 1934, Parker married actor-writer Alan Campbell and the couple relocated to Los Angeles. They divorced in 1947, and remarried in 1950, but their relationship deteriorated.
She was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1959 and was a visiting professor at California State College in Los Angeles in 1963. She returned to Manhattan and lived in the Volney Hotel on the Upper East Side for the last 15 years of her life.
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