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Start giftingDorothy Parker
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Learn moreShe was known for her outrageous one-liners, her ruthless theater criticism, her clever verses and bittersweet stories. But there was another side of Dorothy Parker: a private life set on a course of destruction through two divorces, a string of painful affairs, a lifelong problem with alcohol, and several suicide attempts.
In this lively, absorbing biography, Marion Meade illuminates both sides of the fascinating Parker: her dark days, as well as her days in the sun at the Algonquin Round Table with Robert Benchley, George Kaufman, and Harold Ross and in Hollywood with S. J. Perelman, William Faulkner, and Lillian Hellman. At the dazzling center of it all, Meade gives us the flamboyant, self-destructive, and brilliant Dorothy Parker.
Marion Meade is the author of Dorothy Parker: What Fresh Hell Is This? She has also written biographies of Woody Allen, Buster Keaton, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Madame Blavatsky, and Victoria Woodhull, as well as two novels about medieval France. She lives in New York City.
Grace Conlin (1962–1997) was the recording name of Grainne Cassidy, an award-winning actress and acclaimed narrator. She was a member of the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, DC, and won a Helen Hayes Award in 1988 for her role in Woolly Mammoth’s production of Savage in Limbo.
Reviews
“A compelling and somewhat frightening tale…Meade is also to be applauded for a great feat of detective work.”
“An intensely readable biography…Wonderfully full, richly researched.”
“Meade’s lively biography recounts the unhappy life of the wise-cracking versifier, short story writer and critic...So detailed is Meade’s book that this, one imagines, is the last time a biographer will need to explain why so talented a writer could at the same time be so nasty a human being.”
“This well-read, well-written biography caresses your ears like a tautly written novel. Conlin, whose voice is both rich and melodious, reads with great style.”
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