To some extent, Dorothy Parker is better known for being a witty raconteur than a great writer - but there's no reason a woman can't be both! (I know I am, ha ha).
She was a notorious gossip columnist for The New Yorker and then a theatre critic, writer of short stories, poet and member of the infamous Algonquin round table (a group of artistes and witty people who met regularly to gossip around a round table at The Algonquin hotel in New York).
Parker quotes include:
"A little bad taste is like a nice dash of paprika."
"Brevity is the soul of lingerie"
and, of Katharine Hepburn: "She runs the gamut of emotions from A to B"...
Parker didn't really have a very happy life, marrying a gay man and an alcoholic and spending much of her life trying (not very successfully) to fight off depression. Perhaps that's what made her so bitchy, even to her friends. She had a good heart though and tried to help others: campaigning against the death penalty and Communist witch hunts, among other human rights issues, and helping victims of the Spanish Civil War. She went to Hollywood to be a screenwriter, but hated it, although she penned several films including classic A Star Is Born. her fighting spirit, her wit, and most of all her writing have inspired many women writers of today, including the inimitable Nora Ephron (who was lucky enough to meet her).
Read this: The Portable Dorothy Parker
What do you think? Who's your favourite trailblazer?
