SOURCE: Horder, Mervyn. “Dorothy Parker: An American Centenary.” Contemporary Review 263, no. 1535 (December 1993): 320-21.

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 something of a jolt to find that two American entertainers whose products have earned an honoured place in the consciousness of most British intellectuals have already reached this venerable condition—Cole Porter last year, and Dorothy Parker this one. Dorothy Parker, Dotty to her friends and the journalists, died in 1967 but is still popularly referred to as ‘the immortal D. P.’. She had a lamentably disordered life—three times married (twice to the same man), abortion, attempted suicide, and progressive reliance on the Scotch bottle, which, as we all know, is apt to take away quite quickly whatever pleasures it gives. Her health can hardly have been...