Book Description
Using selected and arranged passages Barry Day tells the life of Dorothy Parker.
Dorothy Parker: In Her Own Words FROM THE PUBLISHER
Despite her prolific output, ageless writer and wit Dorothy Parker (1893-1967) never penned an autobiography (although if she had, she said it would have been titled Mongrel). Combing through her stories, poems, articles, reviews, correspondence, and even her rare journalism and song lyrics, editor Barry Day has selected and arranged passages that describe her life and its preoccupations -- urban living, the theater and the cinema, the battle of the sexes, and death by dissipation. Best known for her scathing pieces for the New Yorker and her membership in the Algonquin Round Table ("The greatest collection of unsaleable wit in America"), Parker filled her work with a unique mix of fearlessness, melancholy, savvy, and hope. In Dorothy Parker, the irrepressible writer addresses her early career writing for magazines, her championing of social causes such as integration, and the obsession with suicide that became another element of her satire. Highlights include Parker on fashion ("Brevity is the soul of lingerie"), drama ("Scratch an actor ... and you'll find an actress"), literature ("This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force"), and much more.
SYNOPSIS
Despite her prolific output, writer and wit Dorothy Parker (1893- 1967) never produced an autobiography. This volume contains passages selected from among her published writings and correspondence that describe her life and ideas. In these passages, Parker addresses her early career writing for magazines, her championing of social causes such as integration, and the obsession with suicide that became another element of her satire. Day is the author or editor of numerous books, plays, and musicals. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
FROM THE CRITICS
Library Journal
In this latest addition to a series of literary autobiographies of sorts (most recently, Sherlock Holmes: In His Own Words and Wodehouse: In His Own Words), Day takes on Dorothy Parker (1893-1967), a writer who, as he notes, had the reputation of being the greatest wit since Oscar Wilde. The author of short stories, verse, criticism, and drama but never an autobiography, she is described as one of the defining literary figures of the first half of the last century and perhaps the most influential writer on being a woman at that time of change. Using quotations from her writings in a variety of genres, Day explores aspects like her career as a writer for film and magazines, membership in the famed roundtable of wits who met at New York City's Algonquin Hotel, relationships with men, love of dogs, flirtation with communism and investigation by the House Un-American Activities Committee, and preoccupation with death. Like Day's earlier series entries, this informative and entertaining volume lacks formal documentation, but it will nicely complement Marion Meade's more substanial Dorothy Parker: What Fresh Hell Is This? Recommended for public libraries. Denise J. Stankovics, Rockville P.L., Vernon, CT Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
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