Dorothy Parker Biography

Biography

Type: Poet, short story writer

Born: August 22, 1893

Died: June 7, 1967

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)

Dorothy Parker Quotes

Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes clean to the bone.

If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he
If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to.

That woman speaks eighteen languages, and can't say 'No' in any of them.

By the time you swear you're his,
Shivering and sighing.
And he vows his passion is,
Infinite, undying.
Lady make note of this -
One of you is lying.

In youth, it was a way I had,
To do my best to please.
And change, with every passing lad
To suit his theories.

But now I know the things I know
And do the things I do,
And if you do not like me so,
To hell, my love, with you.

I don't know much about being a millionaire, but I'll bet I'd be darling at it.

Share Page

Dorothy Parker Wiki

Dorothy Parker At Amazon