Dorothy Parker

Dorothy Parker (1893-1967) - original surname RothschildAmerican short story writer, poet, and critic, a legendary figure in the New York literary scene. Parker wrote sketches and short stories, many of them published in The New Yorker. Her column, 'Constant Reader', was highly popular. Parker was especially famous for her instant wit and and cruel humour.COMMENT Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song, A medley of extemporanea; And love is a thing that can never go wrong; And I am Marie of Roumania.Dorothy Parker was born in West End, New Jersey, to a Jewish father and Scottish mother. Her mother died when she was a baby. She was educated at a convent and moved to New York City. She wrote during the day and earned money at night playing the piano in a dancing school. In 1916 she sold some of her poetry to the editor of Vogue, and was given an editorial position on the magazine. From 1917 to 1920 she worked as a critic for Vanity Fair, and formed with two other writers, Robert Benchley and Robert Sherwood, the nucleus of the Algonquin Round Table, an informal luncheon club held at New York City's Algonquin Hotel on Forty-Fourth Street. Other members included Ring Lardner and James Thurber. Parker was usually the only woman in the group.Between the years 1927 and 1933 Parker wrote book reviews for The New Yorker. Her works continued appear in the magazine at irregular intervals until 1955. In 1926 appeared Parker's first collection of poems, ENOUGH ROPE, which contains the often-quoted 'Resumé,' on suicide, and 'News Item,' "Men seldom make passes / At girls who wear glasses." It became a bestseller and was followed by SUNSET GUNS (1928) and DEATH AND TAXES (1931), which were collected in COLLECTED POEMS: NOT SO DEEP AS A WELL (1936). Her works in verse were sardonic, usually dry, elegant commentaries on departing or departed love, or shallowness of modern life. "Why is it no one sent me yet / One perfect limousine, do you suppose? / Ah no, it's always just my luck to get / One perfect rose." (1926) Parker's short stories, which were collected in AFTER SUCH PLEASURES (1932) and HERE LIES (1939), proved deep knowledge and understanding of human nature. Among her best-known short stories are 'A Big Blonde' and 'A Telephone Call.'RésuméRazors pain you; Rivers are damp; Acids stain you; And drugs cause cramp. Guns aren't lawful; Nooses give; Gas smell awful; You might as well live.During the 1920s she had extra-marital affairs, drank heavily and attempted suicide three times, but maintained the highs quality of her texts. In the 1930s Parker moved with her second husband, Alan Campbell, to Hollywood. She worked there as a screenwriter, including on the film A STAR IS BORN (1937), directed by William Wellman and starring Janet Gaynor, Fredric March, and Adolphe Menjou. Parker received An Academy Award for the screenplay with Campbell and Robert Carson. In Alfred Hitchcock's film Saboteur (1940) Parker collaborated with Peter Vierter and Joan Harrison. Her contribution is mainly visible in some of the bizarre details of the circus the hero (Robert Cummings) takes refuge in, with its squabbling Siamese twins, its bearded lady in curlers and a malevolent dwarf who acts and dresses a bit like Hitler.With Lillian Hellman and Dashiell Hammett, Parker helped found the Screen Writers' Guild. She also reported on the Spanish Civil War, and collaborated on several plays. Temptations of Hollywood did not make Parker any softer, which a number of film stars had to face. When Joan Crawford was married to Franchot Tone, she became obsessed with self-improvement. Parker said: "You can take a whore to culture, but you can't make her think." Parker had taken an early stand against Fascism and Nazism and she declared herself a Communist, for which she was blacklisted during the McCarthy era. Her last major film project was THE FAN (1949), directed by Otto Preminger. It was based on Oscar Wilde's play Lady Windermere's Fan, but Wilde's witty comments on society and Parker's updating did not amuse the audience. Later Preminger admitted that "it was one of the few pictures I disliked while I was working on it." Parker died alone on June 7, 1967 in the New York hotel that had become her final home. She left her estate to civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr."Four be the things I am wiser to know: Idleness, sorrow, a friend, and a foe." (from Enough Rope, 1926)For further reading: Dorothy Parker, Revised by Arthur F. Kinney (1998); The Rhetoric of Rage by Sondra Melzer (1997); Dorothy Parker by Randall Calhoun (1992); Women of the Twenties by George H. Douglas (1989); Dorothy Parker: What Fresh Hell is This? by Marion Meade (1987); The Late Mrs. Dorothy Parker by Leslie Frewin (1986) - Note: Film Mrs.Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994), depicts the life of Dorothy Parker and his friends around the famous Algonquin Round Table. Directed by Alan Rudolph, starring Jennifer Jason Leigh, Campbell Scott, Matthew Broderick. - American writers in Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s: James M. Cain, Raymond Chandler, John Fante, Daniel Fuchs, Horace McCoy, Clifford Odets, Maxwell Anderson, Dorothy Parker, John Don Passos, Theodore Dreiser, Dashiell Hammett, William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald.Selected works:* ENOUGH ROPE, 1926 * SUNSET GUN, 1927 * CLOSE HARMONY, 1929 (play) * LAMENTS FOR THE LIVING, 1930 * DEATH AND TAXES, 1931 * AFTER SUCH PLEASURES, 1933 - Hyvästi rakkaus - includes the story 'Big Blonde' * COLLECTED POEMS: NOT SO DEEP AS A WELL, 1936 * HERE LIES, 1939 * COLLECTED STORIES, 1942 * COLLECTED POETRY, 1944 * THE LADIES OF THE CORRIDOR, 1953 * CONSTANT READER, 1970 * A MONTH OF SATURDAYS, 1971 * THE PORTABLE DOROTHY PARKER, 1973 (collected by Lillian Hellman) * PORTABLE DOROTHY PARKER, 1991 (ed. by Brendan Gill) * THE POETRY AND SHORT STORIES OF DOROTHY PARKER, 1994 * NOT MUCH FUN: THE LOST POEMS OF DOROTHY PARKER, 1996 (compiled by Stuart Y. Silverstein) * COMPLETE POEMS, 1999 (paperback, introduction by Colleen Breese)Films (as screenwriter in collaboration or uncredited):* HERE IS MY HEART, 1934 (uncredited) * ONE HOUR LATE, 1935 * THE BIG BROADCAST OF 1936, 1935 (co-songs only) * PARIS IN SPRING, 1935 (co-songs only) * HANDS ACROSS THE TABLE, 1935 - dir. by Mitchell Leisen * MARY BURNS FUGITIVE, 1935 - dir. by William K. Howard * THE MOON'S OUR HOME, 1936 - dir. by William A. Seiter * SUZY, 1936 - screenplay with Alan Campbell, Horace Jackson, Lenore Coffee, dir. by George Fitzmaurice, starring Jean Harlow, Cary Grant * THREE MARRIED MEN, 1936 * LADY BE CAREFUL, 1936 * A STAR IN BORN, 1937 - dir. by William Wellman, academy award to screenwriter Dorothy Parker, Alan Campbell (her husband), and Robert Carson, based partly on the film What Price Hollywood? (1932), dir. George Cukor * WOMAN CHASES MAN, 1937 - dir. by John G. Blystone * SWEETHEARTS, 1938 - screenplay with Alan Campbell, dir. by W.S. Van Dyke, starring Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy * TRADE WINDS, 1939 - screenplay with Alan Campbell and Frank R. Adams, dir. by Tony Garnett, starring Fredric March, Joan Bennet * THE LITTLE FOXES, 1941 - dir. by William Wyler, play by Lillian Hellman * WEEKEND FOR THREE, 1941 - dir. by Irving Reis, starring Dennis O'Keefe, Jane Wyatt, Philip Reed * SABOTEUR, 1942 - dir. by Alfred Hitchcock. written by Dorothy Parker, Peter Viertel, Joan Harrison * SMASH-UP, 1947 (co-story only) * THE FAN, 1949 - screenplay with Walter Reisch and Ross Evans, based on Oscar Wilde's play Lady Windermere's Fan, dir. by Otto Preminger, starring George Sanders, Madeleine Carroll. (Remake of Ernst Lubitsch's classic version from 1925. ) * A STAR IS BORN, 1954 - dir. by George Cukor, starring Judy Garland, James Mason