46 Years Ago, June 7, 1967

[Lorilei]

The fabulous Dorothy Parker died of a heart attack at the age of 73.

Her lifelong reputation as a glittering, annihilating humorist in poetry, essays, short stories and in conversation was compiled and sustained brickbat by brickbat. One of her quips could make a fool a celebrity, and vice versa. She was, however, at bottom a disillusioned romantic, all the fiercer because the world spun against her sentimental nature. She truly loved flowers, dogs and a good cry; and it was this fundamental sadness and shyness that gave her humor its extraordinary bite and intensity.

http://dorothyparker.com/nytobit.html

 

[Lorilei]

Sonnet For The End Of A Sequence

So take my vows and scatter them to sea;
Who swears the sweetest is no more than human.
And say no kinder words than these of me:
"Ever she longed for peace, but was a woman!
And thus they are, whose silly female dust
Needs little enough to clutter it and bind it,
Who meet a slanted gaze, and ever must
Go build themselves a soul to dwell behind it."

For now I am my own again, my friend!
This scar but points the whiteness of my breast;
This frenzy, like its betters, spins an end,
And now I am my own. And that is best.
Therefore, I am immeasurably grateful
To you, for proving shallow, false, and hateful.

 

[LiFeNdEaTh]

thanks for sharing..

 

[Lorilei]

Bohemia

Authors and actors and artists and such
Never know nothing, and never know much.
Sculptors and singers and those of their kidney
Tell their affairs from Seattle to Sydney.
Playwrights and poets and such horses' necks
Start off from anywhere, end up at sex.
Diarists, critics, and similar roe
Never say nothing, and never say no.
People Who Do Things exceed my endurance;
God, for a man that solicits insurance!

 

[Lorilei]

Epitaph

The first time I died, I walked my ways;
I followed the file of limping days.

I held me tall, with my head flung up,
But I dared not look on the new moon's cup.

I dared not look on the sweet young rain,
And between my ribs was a gleaming pain.

The next time I died, they laid me deep.
They spoke worn words to hallow my sleep.

They tossed me petals, they wreathed me fern,
They weighted me down with a marble urn.

And I lie here warm, and I lie here dry,
And watch the worms slip by, slip by.

 

[Lorilei]

''All those writers who write about their childhood! Gentle God, if I wrote about mine you wouldn't sit in the same room with me.''
Dorothy Parker (1893-1967), U.S. humorous writer. Interview in Writers at Work, First Series, ed. Malcolm Cowley (1958).

 

[Lorilei]

'Why is it no one ever sent me yet
One perfect limousine, do you suppose?
Ah no, it's always just my luck to get
One perfect rose.''

 

[Lorilei]

''This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.''
Dorothy Parker (1893-1967), U.S. humor writer. Quoted in The Algonquin Wits, ed. Robert E. Drennan (1968). Book review.

 

[islandman]

bg23 reads Dorothy Parker: http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=5163062&height=267&width=200

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

She sucked as a poet.

 

[Lorilei]

bg23 reads Dorothy Parker: http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=5163062&height=267&width=200

Holy smokes, that's awesome.

 

[Balladeer08]

Holy smokes, that's awesome.

Great lady, with a razor wit and a bawdy sense of humor.

The day after a party she remarked something like "Two more drinks and I'd have been under the host!"

Her Round Table group produced endless amusement.

Dorothy wrote "Candy is Dandy"

I think it was Bennet Cerf who replied "Liquor is quicker!"

Both proving that brevity IS the soul of wit!

 

[Lorilei]

''Razors pain you;
Rivers are damp;
Acids stain you;
And drugs cause cramp.
Guns aren't lawful;
Nooses give;
Gas smells awful;
You might as well live.''

 

[Lorilei]

''Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song,
A medley of extemporanea;
And love is a thing that can never go wrong;
And I am Marie of Roumania.''