Fun Facts Friday: Dorothy Parker

Dorothy Parker (22 August, 1893-7 June, 1967) was an American poet, critic and short story writer. She is known for her biting humor and narrative.

Books by, or about Dorothy Parker*

Fun Facts about Dorothy Parker:

1. Dorothy Rothschild, nicknamed Dot or Dottie, was born to Jacob Henry Rothschild and Eliza Annie in Long Branch, New Jersey. Her grandfather, Sampson Jacob Rothschild, Immigrated to Alabama around 1846.
2. Her uncle, Martin Rothchild died on the Titanic in 1912.
3. Young Ms. Rothchild was raised in New York’s Upper West Side, but when her stepmother died when she was nine (her birth mother died when she was three), the young woman attended a finishing school, Miss Dana’s, in Morristown, NJ.
4. In 1914 Vanity Fair bought her first poem, and a few months later she was hired as an editorial assistant to Vogue and Condé Nast magazines.
5.  In 1917 she met Edwin Pond Parker II, and the two married before he left to server in World War I with the U.S. Army 4th Division.
6. By 1918 Dorothy Parker‘s career was skyrocketing. This is when, along with others, she became a founding member of the Algonquin Round Table. The table was initially part of a practical joke, but soon the group of writers, actors, and critics met regularly at the Algonquin Hotel.
7. Her theater criticisms were witty, fun and well-read but also offensive to powerful people in the industry. She was fired in 1919 but soon found other jobs with higher circulations.
8. When Harold Ross founded the New Yorker (1925), Dorothy Parker, along with fellow Algonquin Round Table members, became part of the board of editors. Her published pieces were very popular due to their wit, and vicious humor. Her career as a write took off over the next 15 years with hundreds of poems published, as well as volumes of poetry.
9. Dorothy Parker also wrote screenplays, she was even nominated twice for an Academy Award for two movies, A Star is Born (1937) and Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman (1947). However, her involvement in left-wing politics ruined her chances and placed her on the Hollywood blacklist.
10. Dorothy Parker died of a heart attack and willed her estate to Martin Luther King, Jr. and to the NAACP upon his death.

Books by, or about Dorothy Parker*

Zohar – Man of la Book
*Amazon links point to an affiliate account

Sources:

Dorothy Parker | Wikipedia

Dorothy Parker: American Author | Britannica

Dorothy Parker : 1893—1967 | The Poetry Foundation