Dorothy Parker: What Fresh Hell Is This?
Table of Contents
PENGUIN BOOKS
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter 1 - THE EVENTS LEADING UP TO THE TRAGEDY
Chapter 2 - PALIMPSEST
Chapter 3 - VANITY FAIR
Chapter 4 - CUB LIONS
Chapter 5 - THE ALGONQUIN ROUND TABLE
Chapter 6 - PAINKILLERS
Chapter 7 - LAUGHTER AND HOPE AND A SOCK IN THE EYE
Chapter 8 - “YESSIR, THE WHADDYECALL’EM BLUES”
Chapter 9 - GLOBAL DISASTERS
Chapter 10 - BIG BLONDE
Chapter 11 - SONNETS IN SUICIDE, OR THE LIFE OF JOHN KNOX
Chapter 12 - YOU MIGHT AS WELL LIVE
Chapter 13 - GOOD FIGHTS
Chapter 14 - BAD FIGHTS
Chapter 15 - THE LEAKING BOAT
Chapter 16 - TOAD TIME
Chapter 17 - HIGH-FORCEPS DELIVERIES
Chapter 18 - HAM AND CHEESE, HOLD THE MAYO
Chapter 19 - LADY OF THE CORRIDOR
AFTERWORD TO THE TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
Notes
Index
PENGUIN BOOKS
DOROTHY PARKER
Marion Meade has written a widely acclaimed biography, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and a novel entitled Stealing Heaven: The Love Story of Heloise and Abelard. She lives in Manhattan.
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First published in the United States of America by Villard Books,
A division of Random House, Inc. 1988
Published in Penguin Books 1989
Copyright © Marion Meade, 1987, 2006
All rights reserved
Grateful acknowledgment is made to The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Eslate of Dorothy Parker for permission to reprint excerpts from various materials by Dorothy Parker including letters, poems, untitled verse and speeches. Copyright © The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Estate of Dorothy Parker. Acknowletlgment is made to the following libraries for permission to reprint material from their collections: The University of Chicago Library, Department of Special Collections; The Bancroft Library, University of California., Berkeley, Thomas J. Mooney Papers (C-B 410); The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, Collection of American Literature; Columbia University Oral History Research Office, Copyright © Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York; The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations, Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection; Van Pelt Library, University of Pennsylvania, the Burton Rascoe Collection, Department of Special Collections; the Harry Ransom Collection; Van Pelt Library, University of Pennsylvania, the Button Rascoe Collection, Department of Special Collections; the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, the University of Texas at Austin; Dallas Public Library, the Margo Jones Collection; The Newbeny Library, Malcolm Cowley Papers; Princeton University Library, F. Scott Fitzgerald Collection, Box 51; Fales Library, New York University; The Houghton Library, Harvard University; Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan, Arnold Gingrich Papers, Michigan Historical Collections; The John F. Kennedy Library, Bostn, Massachusetts, the Ernest Hemingway Collection; Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the George Lorimer Paper, Robert Benchley material
Page 460 constitutes an extension of this copyright page.
Calligraphy by Gun Larson
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA
Meade, Marion, 1934-
Dorothy Parker: what fresh hell is this?/Marion Meade.
p. cm.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
eISBN : 978-1-101-46219-5
Parker, Dorothy, 1893-1967—Biography. 2. Authors,
American—20th century—Biography. 1. Title.
[PS3531.A5855Z77 1989]
818’.5209—dcl9
[R] 88-23782
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FOR ALISON LINKHORN
Acknowledgments
Since Dorothy Parker herself left no correspondence, manuscripts, memorabilia, or private papers of any kind, I have had to reconstruct her life by talking to those who knew her and by retrieving material from various institutions, attics, trunks, and the personal files of people who considered her letters worth preserving.
Throughout her life she was secretive about her origins and gave the impression that she had no family ties whatsoever, even though her close relationship with her sister, Helen, lasted a lifetime. This biography was written with the cooperation of Lel Droste Iveson, Dorothy Parker’s niece, who generously shared with me memories of her aunt and details of the family’s history, as well as Parker’s childhood letters, verse, and a scrapbook—photo album compiled over the course of many years. She has my deepest gratitude. I also would like to thank other members of the family who have been of tremendous help to me: Joan Grossman, Robert Iveson, Marge Droste, and Nancy Arcaro. Special thanks to Susan Cotton for the loan of the album.
Roy Eichel, the only surviving member of Alan Campbell’s family, offered me photographs, reminiscences spanning nine decades, and the hospitality of his home. His wonderful cooperation was altogether a biographer’s dream.
Many persons have contributed to this biography. They shared their recollections in interviews, telephone conversations, and letters; they took considerable trouble to locate photographs and correspondence, search for sheet music, draw maps, conduct tours of their homes, prepare meals, and guide me to sources I might otherwise have not known about. Without their generous assistance this book would not exist. To all of them I am greatly indebted:
Timothy Adams, Charles Addams, Stella Adler, Louisa Alger, Vera Allen, Bill Allyn, Roger Angell, Andrew Anspach, Patricia Arno, Louis Auchincloss, Julian Bach, Don Bachardy, Lisa Bain, Shirley Booth Baker, Fredericka Barbour, Margaret Barker, Vita Barsky, Charles Baskerville, Lois Battle, Saul Bellow, Nathaniel Benchley, Leonard Bernstein, Rebecca Bernstien, Paul Bonner, Jr., Gardner Botsford, Clement Brace, Frederic Bradlee, Fanny Brennan, Heywood Hale Broun, Joseph Bryan III, John Carlyle, Lester Cole, Dorothy Commins, Marc Connelly, Norman Corwin, Malcolm Cowley, Alyce Cusson, John Davies,
Helen Walker Day, Sylvia Statt DeBaun, Lucinda Dietz, Harvey Deneroff, Helen Deutsch, Eric Devine, Rita Devine, Honoria and William Donnelly.
Anne Edelman, Henry Ephron, Arpad Fekete, Leslie Fiedler, Ben Finney, Moe Fishman, Nina Foch, Sally Foster, Pie Friendly, Arnold Gates, Bernard Geis, Martha Gellhorn, Brendan Gill, Margalo Gillmore, Ruth Goetz, Frances Goodrich, Milton Greenstein, Thomas Guinzburg, Albert Hackett, Emily Hahn, Curtis Harnack, Harold Hayes, Sig Herzig, Rust Hills, Henry Beetle Hough, Ian Hunter, Mary M. James, Gordon G. Jones.
E. J. Kahn, Jr., Virginia Rice Kahn, Eleanor Kairalla, Donald Klopfer, Howard Koch, Don Koll, Parker Ladd, Ring Lardner, Jr., Geraldine Leder, Queenie Leonard, Clara Lester, Miranda and Ralph Levy, Phebe Ann Lewis, Michael Loeb, Joshua Logan, William Lord, Nancy Macdonald, Gertrude Macy, Bob Magner, Chris Marconi, Sister Miriam Martin, Samuel Marx, Bruce Mason, Walter Matthau, Vera Maxwell, William Maxwell, Mary McDonald, Laura McLaughlin, Mickey Medinz, Paul Millard, J. Clifford Miller, Jr., Alice Leone Moats, Betty Moodie, Dr. Christopher Morren, Wright Morris, Cathy Morrow, Kate Mostel, Lewis Mumford, Alice Lee Myers.
Adeline Naiman, Robert Nathan, Anne Noll, Paul O’Dwyer, Emily Paley, Judith and Lewis Parker, Paul Pascarelli, Kenneth Pitchford, Robert Phelps, Noel Pugh, Ben Rayburn, Dame Flora Robson, Dorothy Rodgers, Helen Rosen, Peg Ross, Robert Rothwell, Yvonne Luff-Roussel.
Allen Saalburg, Joseph Schrank, Lee Schryver, Budd Schulberg, Jim Seligmann, Madeline Sherwood, Frederick Shroyer, Steven Siegel, Stan Silverman, Sisters of Charity, Frances Scott Fitzgerald Smith, Toni Strassman, Shepperd Strudwick, Pete Steffens, Leland Stowe, Bob Tallman, William Targ, Marian Spitzer Thompson, Helen Thurber, Helen Townsend, Lester Trauch, Harriet Walden, James Waters, Robert Weinberg, E. B. White, Robert Whitehead, Elinor Wikler, Richard Wilbur, Meta Carpenter Wilde, Dr. Susan Williamson, Noel Willman, Jeanne Ballot Winham, Mildred Wohlforth, Dana Woodbury, Robert Yaw III, Naomi Yergin, Curt Yeske, Lois Moran Young, Jerome Zerbe.
To the libraries and librarians who helped collect and copy Parker’s papers and in other ways assisted me in documenting her life, I am most grateful:
The New York Public Library, the New York Historical Society, Boston University, Columbia University, New York University, Yale University, Library of Congress, University of Southern California, Atlanta University, Queens Public Library, Pennsylvania State University, Walter Hampden-Edwin Booth Theatre Collection and Library, Gettysburg College, Brandeis University, Enoch Pratt Free Library, University of Oregon, University of Michigan, Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research, University of California, Dallas Public Library, University of Iowa, Green-field Community College, Hamilton College, Harvard University, Princeton University, New York Genealogical and Biographical Library, New York Society Library, Virginia Military Institute, Pacifica Tape Library, Smith College, Indiana University, Temple University, University of Texas, American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, University of Chicago, Southern Illinois University, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, State University of New York (Buffalo), University of Virginia, Newberry Library, Cornell University, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, American Film Institute, Museum of Modern Art Film Department, Ninety-second Street Young Men’s and Young Women’s Hebrew Association, Museum of the City of New York, Virginia Commonwealth University, Samford University, International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union Archives, Joint Free Public Library of Morristown, N.J., Leo Baeck Institute, State of Alabama Department of Archives and History, and the Mercer Museum.
For providing work space in the Frederick Lewis Allen Memorial Room during the initial stages of my research, I am grateful to the New York Public Library.
Under a Freedom of Information Act request, the Federal Bureau of Investigation released to me more than nine hundred pages of material on Dorothy Parker and Alan Campbell over a four-year period.
Several publishing companies offered valuable assistance. I would like to express my appreciation to The Viking Press and W. W. Norton and Company for giving me access to their Dorothy Parker files. The New Yorker and the Saturday Evening Post supplied inventories of her writings that had appeared in their magazines. The library at Condé Nast Publications, Inc., allowed me to spend as many hours as I wished searching bound volumes of Vogue and Vanity Fair for her earliest published work.
A number of writers, editors, and filmmakers were kind enough to offer leads and practical advice or to share information they had gathered for projects of their own: Billy Altman, April Bernard, John Dorr, Bryan Gallagher, John Keats, Nancy Milford, William Nolan, Victor Navasky, Stanley Olson, Aviva Slesin, Caroline Seebohm, and Roy Winnick. Several conversations with Richard Meryman led me to an investigation of alcoholism and two years of attendance at Alanon meetings. James Gaines helpfully loaned tapes he had made with certain individuals (now deceased) for Wit’s End, his excellent book about the Round Table. Maxine Haleff arranged interviews for me in New York and personally conducted other interviews in California. I am especially indebted to Richard Lamparski for allowing me to quote from the revealing interview he taped with Parker the year before her death, as well as his unstinting help in supplying me with leads in Hollywood.
Vanessa Levin generously donated her services as a research assistant. My thanks for her work on behalf of the book in New York and Hollywood and for her moral support.
I am enormously grateful to my friend Minda Novek, who shared with me her fund of expert knowledge about the Algonquin Round Table and listened patiently while I nattered on about Dorothy Parker year after year.
Two friends have helped sustain me throughout the writing of the book with affection, job leads, meals, research, unfailing encouragement, but perhaps most importantly, with their wonderful humor. To Dorothy Herrmann, author of S. J. Perelman: A Life, and to Prudence Crowther, editor of Don’t Tread on Me: The Selected Letters of S. J. Perelman, I owe gratitude and the memory of a great deal of laughter.
It would have been extremely difficult to complete this work without the practical help of Maria Stowe and Earle Resnick. I have been fortunate to know both of them.
Finally, I would like to thank my forbearant editor at Villard Books, Diane Reverand, for the understanding she has shown me, and my agent, Lois Wallace, who could always be depended upon for wise counsel and cheerful encouragement.
Introduction
THE ALGONQUIN HOTEL
Summer 1927
It did not look special. Other hotels on West Forty-fourth Street had American Indian names and walnut-paneled lobbies bathed in Edwardian gloom. The difference was not even in the extravagant price of the blue-plate special (half spring chicken, two vegetables, French fried potatoes—$1.65) or the fact that the hotel’s regular guests included Mary Pickford and Henry Mencken. The reason for its uniqueness stemmed from a single article of furniture, a large round table that occupied the center of the Algonquin’s main dining room.
Those who took the trouble to stroll through the hotel lobby around noon and stop near the portière leading to the Rose Room could get a good view of the table, quite likely glimpse George Kaufman’s pompadour or the beaky nose of F.P.A., and perhaps hear Alexander Woollcott snarl one of his famous insults at Heywood Broun or Harold Ross. People who waited long enough finally saw a tiny brunette woman emerge from the elevator and breeze into the dining room. No one needed to identify her as Dorothy Parker because everyone knew this was where she lived, where she met her friends, where the luncheon circle she had helped make a national legend dined every day. If the fabled Algonquin Round Table was indeed the country’s literary Camelot, as some liked to insist, then she was its Guinevere.
The summer of 1927 marked the eighth anniversary of the day she first brought Robert Benchley and Robert Sherwood to the Algonquin Hotel, all of them working together down the street at Vanity Fair, poorly paid editors grateful to attend a free luncheon welcoming Woollcott back from the war. Although none of them realized it at the time, that animated party in June 1919 was the first gather
ing of the Round Table. Dorothy, content to observe, had scarcely uttered a word. She looked meek and fragile in every way, childlike, not quite five feet tall with a mop of dark hair demurely tucked under the brim of her embroidered hat and huge dark eyes that seemed to plead for the world’s protection. She wore glasses, but not in public. She had never smoked a cigarette or drunk more than a sip of a cocktail. The taste of liquor made her sick. She still lived in her childhood neighborhood on the Upper West Side and visited her married sister on Sundays.
In the intervening eight years, she had been dubbed the wittiest woman in America, her quips preserved, repeated, and printed so that by 1927 scarcely a snappy line uttered anywhere was not attributed to her. Enough Rope, her first volume of poetry, was a current best seller. Although she had achieved her great popularity for light verse, she also demonstrated a gift for writing short fiction and criticism.
As a public personality, she had a positive genius for creating the impression that she was a one-of-a-kind flapper—sophisticated, urban, intellectual. Born in the final years of the nineteenth century, she spun her dreams in the turbulent twenties and became a model and inspiration for the women of her time. The truth was that she was obliged to invent herself as she went along. She was a born rebel who enjoyed thumbing her nose at the rules that women were expected to obey:They say of me, and so they should,
It’s doubtful if I come to good.
In competition with men, she pursued a career with skill and accomplishment and demanded to be treated as an equal. She smoked and drank in public. She wrote and said exactly what she thought, expressing herself in racy English that caused eyebrows to shoot up. Her favorite word contained four letters. The word she used almost as frequently also had four letters.