Dorothy Parker Poetry Selections

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DOROTHY PARKER

In 1927 Edmund Wilson, who was then the literary editor of The New Republic, published a review of Dorothy Parker's poetry. In it he wrote,

"Dorothy Parker's unprecedented feat has been to raise to the dignity of poetry the "wise-cracking" humor of New York: she has thus almost invented a new kind of epigram: she has made the comic anti-climax tragic. With the publication of this volume, her figure becomes distinct and her voice unmistakable: in her satires, in her short stories, in her play, we had long been aware of her as somebody and something in particular; and from now on, she must command our attention."

Keep Wilson's words in mind as you begin your enjoyable stroll through the Dorothy Parker Poetry Section that starts below:

"Enough Rope" was published in December of 1926, and by the Spring of 1927 it was making publishing history by becoming a best seller, an almost unprecedented achievement for a volume of poetry.

"Sunset Gun" was Dorothy's second volume of verse, published in May of 1928. The title was changed at the last minute from "Songs For The Nearest Harmonica" to the darker "Sunset Gun," a reference to the cannon that is traditionally fired at the end of the day when the flag is lowered.

In 1931, Viking published Dorothy's third volume of poetry under the title
"Death and Taxes." This was followed five years later by a volume of her collected verse, "Not So Deep as a Well."

F  O  O  T  N  O  T  E

Dorothy Parker suffered a fatal heart attack in 1967 at the age of 74. Despite several suicide attempts, she outlived nearly all the original members of the Algonquin Round Table. Her small estate was left to Martin Luther King, Jr. After his death in 1968, ownership of the Parker literary property passed to the NAACP.

Contrary to Mrs. Parker's wishes for rain, she died on a warm sunny day.

- from "Mrs. Parker And The Vicious Circle"
©1994 ParkBench Films, Inc.

Copyright © The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Estate of Dorothy Parker. All rights reserved