Dorothy Parker: What Fresh Hell Is This?

The phrase "exhaustively researched" has never applied more to a book I've read than it does to Marion Meade's splendid biography "Dorothy Parker: What Fresh Hell Is This?"Mrs. Parker had a career spanning five decades. She wrote short stories, plays, movies, essays, war correspondence, book and drama criticism, and more. She was especially famous for her light verse, which she sold like mad when this commodity was hot.Mrs. Parker was also depressed and alcoholic for most of her adult life. She was a founding member of the famous Algonquin Round Table, a group of writers, critics, wits, and actors that was to writing genius what Los Alamos was to scientific genius. On the surface, it was a bunch of friends and colleagues who met daily for lunch in New York's Algonquin Hotel, but in reality, it was a collection of some of the 20th Century's sharpest minds, all of them imbibing liberally, and zinging one another with insults. It was a means for them to hone their minds, preparing them for their future jobs and successes.Often, when people think of Dorothy Parker, that's what comes to mind: "Oh, she was that vicious little woman in the Algonquin Round Table." She was, indeed, sharp-tongued and often vicious. That was just one part of her story, though, and that's where this book shines, in broadening our view of Dorothy Parker to include the rest of her sad, fascinating life."Dorothy Parker: What Fresh Hell Is This?", of course, deals with Dorothy's childhood, how she lost her mother as a child, then had a contentious relationship with her stepmother. We follow her as she moves into a hasty, pre-war marriage to Mr. Parker, and how she inches her way toward a career as a writer.In many ways, the early to mid 20th Century was a high-water mark for writers. Few people had radios in their homes, and TV broadcasting was years away. The movies were popular, but to entertain and inform themselves, people read. New York City had multiple newspapers competing with one another; there were magazines publishing fiction, poetry, and art--basically, a bunch of "New Yorker" type magazines, though written to entertain even "housewives in Dubuque" (as a Vanity Fair editor described their scope).From its first issue, "The New Yorker" was designed to be a sophisticated magazine that didn't even try to reach the housewives in Dubuque--it was designed for a slick, intellectual New York set. Mrs. Parker and her friends epitomized that set. They met for long lunches at the Algonquin, did whatever their jobs required of them, then it was off to the theater, and afterwards touring the bars (and speakeasies, once Prohibition kicked-in). This was prime time for Mrs. Parker.As all good things end, so did The Round Table group go their separate ways.Despite her stellar reputation as a writer, Mrs Parker hated to write. She was filled with anxiety, agonizing over every sentence and paragraph. When she did write, she was brilliant. Her short stories and verse ended up in the biggest magazines; her criticism for various magazines was sharp and pulled no punches.But Mrs. Parker was never truly happy. She was married three times, twice to the same man. Neither of those relationships brought her happiness, nor did the countless other men she bedded in her life. She traveled, spending long stretches in Europe, rubbing elbows with Hemingway and Fitzgerald. Books of her verse and stories were huge successes, but there were always money woes. There never seemed to be enough money. She spent it as fast as she earned it.Ms Meade has surely examined every molecule of Dorothy Parker information on this planet. She has dug deeper than most biographers do, and I think she gets more inside her subject's head. Though I laughed numerous times at Mrs. Parker's wit, this book, in toto, is not a happy book. To present a happy biography would be disingenuous, an egregious disservice to the life Dorothy Parker lived.She lived fully, too. She made it to lavish parties, but she also walked with protesters in the Sacco and Vanzetti uprisings. She visited Spain during the revolution, and worked stateside to raise money and supplies for Spain's impoverished, who were caught in the middle with nothing. She was investigated by the FBI and the HUAC for her political views and pro-union activities in Hollywood.None of this made her happy. She was depressed, and she drank too much. She got to a point where nearly all of her friends had died. Fitzgerald died at 41; Mrs Parker made it to 73.Her story is fascinating, and Marion Meade does an amazing job presenting this story seamlessly. So many biographies skip over huge gaps in their subjects' lives. With Dorothy Parker, one of the most compelling lifelong struggles is how she'll pay her bills from success to success. Her successes were many; the story of how (and why) they came to be is often surprising--because she needed the money.Dorothy Parker's body of work speaks for itself. Nearly 50 years after her death, her works are still in print, her wit and skill still celebrated.What I took away from this biography was a new appreciation for Mrs. Parker as a wordsmith. Even more, though, I felt a pall of sadness. Her life--for all its highs--never broke through her ennui. Ms Meade's biography so perfectly captures Dorothy Parker's pervasive sadness, that I couldn't help picking up a little myself--sadness along with deep admiration, both for Mrs. Parker's achievements, and for Marion Meade's.Highly Recommended

If you wanted to tell a tale of squandered opportunity, wasted talent and almost total dissipation, Dorothy Parker would make for a perfect model. A literary household name still today, and a founding member of the famously self-regarding Algonquin Roundtable, Parker's life was marred by an almost genius level capacity for near self-destruction. Making her mark in the literary pinnacles of both New York and Hollywood, Parker was equally renowned for missed deadlines and work habits that were an homage to sheer laziness. Though no fault of the biographer ("Her writer’s block was invigorated by the country air," is one of Meade's great zingers) you marvel at the level of detail Meade had somehow managed to scour from a woman determined to keep her personal life a mystery. Yet, you do wind up asking yourself when after all is said and done, "did I really need to know all this?" (The answers is, "yes," if you want to learn how not to wreck what should have been an even more brilliant writing career.)

the reviews space asks what i used this product for. hmmmm let me think.....well i guess truthfully i'd have to say i got it to read. OK? they dragged it out of me. I got it to read. that's my story and i'm sticking to it.

This is a beautifully written book and I've highlighted more passages than usual. The book mines Parker's life soup to nuts; the chapters are chronological and cover several years at a time. Hard to imagine a more thorough look at this amazing woman. But I give it four stars simply because for me the middle feels weighty and overwrought----how many times does one need to read about fantastical NYC parties and Mrs. Parker's boozy binges that stem from her poor self-esteem? Yet, in this way, I felt that the author has given insight into what it meant to be Dorothy Parker----a life of high society, intense and complex friendships, passionate and volatile love, difficult and inspired sessions of creativity, loneliness, and non-stop revelry that wasn't always that fun.All that said, the author thoroughly records the origins and circumstances that bred her pitch-perfect wisecracks. Always, they came from within without a moment's notice, her sharp mind ever at work even when altered by drink or depression. This book doesn't settle for what made her popular and well known, it explores her poetry, reviews, short stories, novels, movie scripts, and even her personal notes and telegrams. Her writing and wit survive her era, still fresh and apt. It’s hard to overstate her popularity and influence in her time, and a little puzzling as to why she hasn’t continued to attract a wider audience. Had it been around in her day she surely would have won a MacArthur's Genius Grant and while she might have accepted it, in need of cash, she certainly would have disparaged their selection----a la Groucho’s “I can’t join a country club that would have me for a member”----and then found a way to mock the whole institution just to underline her unworthiness. Such was Dorothy Parker: in desperate need of love and attention, genius enough to have earned it, but doubting intentions when it was acknowledged.Still, do not be turned away from reading this powerful book---even if you have to take a rest at the hard parts---she occupied a part of American literary history that no one has since filled. If you are unsure, start with her obituary in the New York Times, which appeared on page one and continued on an entire inside page---a distinction reserved for few. http://www.dorothyparker.com/nytobit.html

This is a highly detailed biography and has clearly been the fruit of much research, but if you're looking for the real Dorothy, you won't find her here. We learn that Dorothy's childhood was challenging, but as soon as she begins her writing career, we're overwhelmed with a litany of names, events and detail that left me (and others in our book group) frequently flicking back through the pages in search of just who had done or said what to whom, until we lost the will to keep up. Little sense of narrative emerges from this catalogue of somewhat disjointed facts. Of her emotions, to borrow a Parkerism, only those from A to B are glimpsed.What is lacking in real insight is made up for to some extent in the snippets of Dorothy's own words, and a number of interesting and less-known facts that were surprising. And perhaps she was an elusive person, making this biography a tall order. Still, unless you're willing to slog through a rather turgid and lengthy tome, this probably isn't the way to celebrate your love of all things Dorothy.

A biographer worthy of her subject. And what a subject. Readers already familiar with the wit and wisdom of Dorothy Parker will know what I mean; those who first find her in these pages are in for the literary treat of their lives.That's for the book. For the seller my praise is just as unstinting. Great condition, prompt delivery, god price and a truly great biography.

I am a great fan and this is, by far, the best biography of a witty, fascinating and basically unhappy man

Recently was in New York and stumbled on Algonquin Hotel and had a drink there. Prompted me to download book which I read before many years ago. Love it and her!!

love this book, full of interesting facts about Dorothy as well as some of her quotesHighly recommend this book