Complete Stories

Description

'To say that Mrs. Parker writes well is as fatuous, I'm afraid, as proclaiming that Cellini was clever with his hands . . . The trick about her writing is the trick about Ring Lardner's writing or Ernest Hemingway's writing. There is no trick.' - Ogden Nash Dorothy parker's quips and light verse have become part of the American literary landscape, but, as this collection of her complete short stories demonstrates, Parker's talents extended far beyond brash one-liners and clever rhymes. This collection features Parker's best-known tales ('Big Blonde,' 'A Telephone Call,' and 'The Lovely Leave' among them), as well as thirteen stories never previously collected. There is also a selection of sketches, including 'A Dinner Party Anthology' and 'Men I'm Not Married To,' in which Parker sardonically reflects on some familiar social and emotion realities. Edited by COLLEEN BREESE With an Introduction by REGINA BARRECA

Dorothy Parkerwas born in West End, New Jersey, in 1893 and grew up in New York, attending a Catholic convent school and Miss Dana's School in Morristown, New Jersey. In 1916 she sold some of her poetry to the editor ofVogue, and was subsequently given an editorial position on the magazine, writing captions for fashion photographs and drawings. She then became drama critic ofVanity Fairand the central figure of the celebrated Algonquin Round Table. Famous for her spoken wit, she showed the same trenchant commentary in her book reviews forThe New YorkerandEsquireand in her poems and sketches. Her collection of poems includedNot So Deep as a Well and Enough Rope, which became a bestseller; and her collections of stories includedHere Lies. She also collaborated with Elmer Rice on a play,Close Harmonyand with Arnaud d'Usseau on the play theLadies of the Corridor. She herself had two Broadway plays written about her and was portrayed as a character in a third. Her cynicism and the concentration of her judgements were famous and she has been closely associated with modern urbane humour. Her first husband was Edwin Pond Parker II, and although they were divorced some years later, she continued to use his name, which she much preferred to her own of Rothschild. Her second husband was an actor-writer Alan Campbell. They went to Hollywood as a writing team and went through a tempestuous marriage until his death in 1963, when Dorothy Parker returned to New York. She died in 1967.