The Portable Dorothy Parker

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0517478552 ISBN 13: 9780517478554

Publisher: Viking, 1985

Complete with two volumes of short stories and three of poetry, plus play reviews, uncollected articles, later stories, book reviews, and an afterword by W. Somerset Maugham, with an Introduction by Brendan Gill.

Review:

Before there was Fran Leibowitz, there was Dorothy Parker. Before there was practically anyone, there was Dorothy Parker. When it comes to expressing the pleasure and pain of being just a touch too smart to be happy, she's winner and still champion after all these years. Along with Robert Benchley, Alexander Woollcott, and the rest of the Algonquin Round Table, she dominated American pop lit in the '20s and '30s; like Ginger Rogers, she did it all backwards. Parker's held up well--maybe the best of all of them.

This book is essential for any Parker fan, and an excellent way for new readers to make her acquaintance. It reprints her finest short stories and poems, some later articles, and all of her excellent "Constant Reader" book reviews from the Depression-era glory days of the New Yorker. The poetry, always light, has become brittle, sorry to say. But you've only to pick any story to be reminded that no middle-distance writer was better than Parker at her best.

About the Author:

Dorothy Parker (1893-1967) was a celebrated poet, short story writer, critic, and an Oscar-nominated screenwriter. Much of her work was published in magazines including Vanity Fair and The New Yorker.