Parker, Dorothy (1893-1967)
Dorothy Parker was the leading light and most scathing wit of the notorious "Algonquin Round Table"—a collection of literary notables who defined the i...
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Dorothy Parker
Born August 22, 1893 (West End, New Jersey)Died June 7, 1967 (New York, New York)
Short-story writer, poet, dramatist, and critic
Dorothy Parker's sharply witty voice was one of ...
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Dorothy Rothschild Parker (1893-1967), American humorist, was known for her biting prose and verse satires. Numerous critics expressed admiration for her unique talent.Born in New Jersey to Scottish-J...
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There was a time when it seemed that all things bright, clever, or malicious spoken in New York were ascribed to Dorothy Parker. That time was the 1920s, when wit was as plentiful as bathtub gin and, ...
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Dorothy Parker is known today for her three volumes of verse, Enough Rope (1926), Sunset Gun (1928), and Death and Taxes (1931)--not serious "poetry," she claimed--and two collections of well-wrought ...
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In the 1920s and 1930s Dorothy Parker, the pampered, yet feared, darling of the New York smart set, was the most quotable, quoted, and misquoted person in America. She earned this reputation by creati...
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Wilson compares and contrasts Parker's poetry to that of her contemporaries, noting in particular those elements which make her work distinctive.
Mrs. Dorothy Parker began her poetic career ...
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In this review, Kronenberger discussed Parker's exploration of emotion and sentimentality through her use of wit and cynicism.
It is just ten years since Mrs. Parker first made plain that th...
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In this review, Redlich supports Parker's poetry for its unembellished deceptions of “the vanity of human wishes.”
Miss Parker's short stories are a perennial delight, a...
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Walton examines Sunset Gun, noting the devices Parker uses to “puncture old illusions and then caper wickedly among the ruins.”
A sophisticated palate, it is said, requires pungent fa...
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Here, Kinney provides a discussion concerning Parker's use of meter and verbal simplicity to better satirize her view of society.
Light Verse: “counting Up, Exultingly”
When th...
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The following is Kinney's study of Parker's maturation as a poet, offering a comparison of her with other poets of her generation and persuasion.
Premises: “call Her by My Name&...
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The critic appraises Parker's poetry, especially her timely treatments of established forms.
In an earlier age Dorothy Parker's lyric effusions would have been classified as society v...
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Luhrs appreciates Parker's honest look at society and her ability to craft poetry that appeals to the general reader.
Enough Rope is what the well-dressed man or woman will wear inside their...
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Benét reviews Sunset Gun, pointing out that Parker's writing, like her personality, is difficult to categorize.
Is [Sunset Gun] as good as Enough Rope? Yes. And that might constitute ...
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Busey reviews Sunset Gun, discussing what she believes is Parker's appeal for readers.
Although Miss Parker gives us in these pages, among other charming fantasies, what she calls a “...
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Canby believes that the techniques Parker uses in Death and Taxes produce “poetry deserving high praise.”
The times are choked and cluttered with disillusion—a sticky disillusi...
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Hutchison reads Death and Taxes as a “small package of literary delights,” that reveals truth amid a mixture of the serious and lighthearted.
Since, according to the old proverb, deat...
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Rosenberg focuses on Death and Taxes with respect to sentiment, wit, and poetic quality.
Since Mrs. Parker is too often satisfied with such readymade images as “my narrow bed” for a g...
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In the following review, Benét studies Parker's stature as a poet dealing with the experiences of living as depicted in the poems included in her recent collection, Not So Deep As A Well...
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In the following essay, Horder provides an appreciation of Parker's literary contributions.
Transatlantic centenaries are not much observed, or even noticed on this side, and it comes as som...
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In the following essay, Barreca delineates the defining characteristics of Parker's short fiction and counters the negative critical assessment of her work.
Why is it that many critics seem ...
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In the following essay, Johnson surveys the critical reaction to Parker's oeuvre and examines her unique use of repetition in her work.
Somehow it has always been rather easy to dismiss Doro...
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In the following essay, Simpson examines racial themes in “Big Blonde,” contending that the story provides “a penetrating view of the divides of American identity, and of one whit...
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In the following essay, Pollak traces the influence of Jonathan Swift on Parker's review essay “The Professor Goes in for Sweetness and Light.”
To be happy one must be (a) well...
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In the following essay, Walker asserts that “the medium of the book review allowed for an expression of personal tastes that can provide insight into a woman of integrity and high standards....
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In the following essay, Melzer offers a feminist perspective on Parker's work.
It is astonishing that Dorothy Parker's universe remains essentially unexplored as serious literature ab...
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In the following excerpt, Kinney traces Parker's poetic development.
Premises: “call Her by My Name”
A rewarding way to study Parker's mature work is to see how she embo...
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In the following essay, Pettit regards Parker's short fiction as part of the sentimental tradition.
If Dorothy Parker's twentieth-century poetry seems at times enmeshed in nineteenth-...
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Critical Essay by Alexander Woollcott
Mrs. Parker's published work does not bulk large. But most of it has been pure gold and the five winnowed volumes on her shelf—three of poetry, two...
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Critical Essay by Arthur Voss
Of the writers of the 1920's and 1930's who produced stories on the order of those of Ring Lardner, only [Dorothy Parker] came close to matching his tellin...
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Critical Essay by Brendan Gill
Readers coming to Mrs. Parker for the first time may find it as hard to understand the high place she held in the literary world of forty or fifty years ago as to under...
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Critical Essay by Arthur F. Kinney
Throughout her life, Dorothy Parker was quick to sympathize with those who suffered or were indentured—those she could pity because of misfortune in politics...
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A federal judge has ruled that compiling Dorothy Parker's poems was a far less original act than writing them.The editor of a book of uncollected work by the late author did not show enough "creati...
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Today is Thursday, June 7, the 158th day of 2007. There are 207 days left in the year.Today's Highlight in History:On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia proposed to the Continental Congres...
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Today is Thursday, June 7, the 158th day of 2007. There are 207 days left in the year.Today's Highlight in History:On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia proposed to the Continental Congres...
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It felt like a huge sorority reunion at the party before Glamour magazine’s Women of the Year Awards at Avery Fisher Hall on Monday, Nov. 5—but for the comfortingly pantsuited presence...
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As you may have been able to tell from The New York Times' diabetes series (following its series on gold), it's Pulitzer season and everyone's trying to jump on the multi-part bandwagon. Even Marke...
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I do believe in reincarnation, but I do not believe there is life before noon.” ~Florence KingThere are those who wake up every day without benefit of an alarm clock, who get out of bed as so...
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Let’s face it – when you’re single, the arrival of February 14th is more likely to boost your blood pressure than make your pulse race. It’s bad enough that we have to endur...
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In Paris, "Bar Americain" means a place that serves liquor as well as wine and beer. So the first thing that catches your eye when you walk into celebrity chef Bobby Flay's new restaurant is the en...
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