Speaking of Stories

transforming short stories from the page to the stage

 

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DOROTHY PARKER

Dorothy Parker (1893–1967)- Born Dorothy Rothschild in West End , N.J. , she took her literary name from her brief marriage, in 1917, to Edwin Parker. Her first published poems appeared in Vanity Fair, and she became New York ’s first female drama critic at the magazines sister publication, Vogue. In 1919, as a respected drama critic, she was invited to the Algonquin Hotel, where she later lived and became a member of the Algonquin Round Table, a literary circle that included Robert Benchley, Robert Sherwood, James Thurber, and George Kaufman, among others. She became very involved in the Sacco and Vanzetti trial in 1927, cementing her lifelong commitment to socialism. Her short story The Big Blonde won the prestigious O. Henry Award for best short story of the year, she won and Academy Award for co-writing the screenplay A Star Is Born, and in 1959 was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Upon her death, in 1967 of a heart attack, she bequeathed her entire literary estate to the NAACP.

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