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Your eyes and ears for the 2006 festival

Why Dorothy Parker? Five Questions for an Expert

Filed under: Looked Into Tagged: Dorothy Parker, Dorothy Parker Society, events

The typographically complex but clearly sensible Dark Party Review has a nice interview with Dorothy Parker Society impresario Kevin Fitzatrick today.

DP: Next month is the 40th anniversary of Parker's death and your organization is holding "A Journey into Dorothy Parker's New York" on June 4. What exactly was Parker's New York?

Kevin: That is what makes Dorothy Parker timeless. Her New York still exists: cocktail lounges, hotel lobbies, jazz clubs, magazine offices, crowded subway cars, long taxicab rides at night. Almost all the places she lived 40, 60, 80 years ago are still standing. You don’t have to go too far in Manhattan to find the milieu that she lived in. However, since the mayor’s smoking ban, the cigarette smoke has been removed from the picture.
...
DP: Is Parker still an important literary figure in 2007? If so, why?

Kevin: The fact is Dorothy Parker has never gone out of print. Work that she created before World War I is still on bookshelves. There are not that many American writers, male or female, who are in that company; certainly not a writer such as Parker, who had a limited output. I’ve often said that the reason Dorothy Parker is still read today, and remains popular while others of her era have been forgotten, is because she wrote about the human condition. Getting your heart smashed into a million pieces feels the same in 2007 as it did in 1927. Read the whole interview.

4 comments

Comments

Hi Emily:
Thanks for the link to Dark Party. Kevin was a great interview and his passion for "Dot" shone through.

You've got a wonderful site here. I'm looking forward to exploring.
Best,
GFS3

GFS3May 18, 2007

Thanks! I'm fond of Kevin myself. His tours are top-notch, too!

EmdashesMay 18, 2007

This article finally motivated me to hunt up her last LA address (just a few blocks from where I'm writing this).

http://www.dorothyparker.com/la/dotla05.htm

-k-May 22, 2007

Definitely worth a quick pilgrimage! The L.A. section of Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle is really sad.

EmdashesMay 22, 2007

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