Dorothy Parker (Rothchild)

Dorothy Parker was one of the most influential and successful women of her era. Known for her witty, acerbic wit, she was able to break into many literary fields in which men had been dominant. She was know especially for her short stories, poems and powerful quotes.

Parker was a founding member of the literary convergence at the Algonquin Round Table in New York. Her poem "Any Porch" was accepted and published by Vanity Fair. A few months later she was hired by Vogue, transferring to Vanity Fair where she became New York's only female drama critic at the time. Some of her accomplishments included: "The Big Blonde," which won the O. Henry award for best short story of the year, an Academy Award in 1937 for her joint screenplay of "A Star is Born." She was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1959.

Born on Aug. 22, 1893, in West End, N.J., Parker had an unhappy childhood. At the age of four her mother died, her brother, Henry, died aboard the Titanic and a year later her father passed away. Her formal education ended at age 14. She was known as a witty conversationist, writing for the New Yorker, The Nation, The New Republic, Cosmopolitan and American Mercury, as well as working at Vogue and Vanity Fair. She wrote poems, short stories, books and satirical verses. While her work was successful, she suffered from depression and alcoholism and attempted suicide.

Parker was married three times. In 1917, she married stockbroker Edwin P. Parker but the marriage was tempestuous and the couple divorced in 1928. In 1934, Parker married actor-writer Alan Campbell; they divorced in 1947 but remarried in 1950 and remained together until his death in 1967.

During the 1920s, Parker traveled to Europe a few times, becoming friends with Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Parker was a lifelong socialist after participating in 1927 campaign against the proposed executions of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti trials.

Parker was found dead of a heart attack in a New York hotel on June 6, 1967. She was 73. She bequeathed her literary estate to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and after his assassination the estate was turned over to the NAACP.

"The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity."

"This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force." — Parker