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The Top Ten: Algonquin Round Table Power Rankings
Filed under: Looked Into Tagged: Alexander Woollcott, Algonquin Round Table, Dorothy Parker, Edna Ferber, Franklin P. Adams, George S. Kaufman, Harold Ross, Harpo Marx, Heywood Broun, Howard Megdal, Jillian Lovejoy Lowery, Marc Connelly, Robert Benchley, Robert Sherwood, Tallulah Bankhead
Pollux writes:
Jillian Lovejoy Lowery and Howard Megdal come up with unscientific rankings measuring the greatness of the members of the Algonquin Round Table.
Some of these stars have dimmed since their heyday, and Lowery and Megdal discuss whether Alexander Woollcott, for example, deserves to be “buried by history” or whether Franklin P. Adams deserves his current obscurity. Dorothy Parker is no. 1 on both posted lists.
Emdashes readers, post your own rankings here!
Comments
My favorite among the Round Table wits is Harold Ross. He might not have been as quick with a quip as Dorothy Parker or George S. Kaufman, but nevertheless he delivered many a memorable, humorous line. Here, for example, is his farewell to John McNulty on that writer’s departure for Hollywood: “Well, God bless you, McNulty, goddam it.†James Thurber’s great “The Years with Ross†is full of such “Rossisms.â€