Dorothy Parker Biography

From a conflicted and unhappy childhood, Parker rose to acclaim, both for her literary output in publications such as The New Yorker and as a founding member of the Algonquin Round Table. Following the breakup of the circle, Parker traveled to Hollywood to pursue screenwriting. Her successes there, including two Academy Award nominations, were curtailed when her involvement in left-wing politics led to a place on the Hollywood blacklist.

Dismissive of her own talents, she deplored her reputation as a "wisecracker." Nevertheless, her literary output and reputation for sharp wit have endured.

A Selected Bibliography:

Poetry:

• Enough Rope (1926)
• Sunset Guns (1928)
• Collected Poems: Not So Deep as a Well (1936)
• Collected Poetry (1944)
• The Portable Dorothy Parker (1991)
• Not Much Fun: The Lost Poems of Dorothy Parker (1996)
• Complete Poems (1999)

Prose:

• Constant Reader (1970)

Fiction:

• Laments for the Living (1930)
• After Such Pleasures (1933)
• Here Lies (1939)
• Collected Stories (1942)

Plays:

• Close Harmony (1929)