Dorothy Parker was the leading light and most scathing wit of the notorious "Algonquin Round Table"—a collection of literary notables who defined the intellectual tastes of New York City in the 1920s and 1930s. Parker is most often remembered for short verses like "Men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses." Her wisecracks ("I require only three things in a man. He must be handsome, ruthless and stupid") and acerbic critiques ("This is not a book to be set aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force") filled the gossip columns of the New York press, gained her a national following, and helped to establish the "magazine culture" of the period.

—Barry Morris

Further Reading:

The Portable Dorothy Parker. New York, Penguin, 1976.

Meade, Marion. Dorothy Parker: What Fresh Hell Is This? New York, Penguin, 1989.