Did you know that Dorothy Parker co-screenwrote “A Star is Born,” the incredible film that starred Judy Garland?
Because it’s the week for it, here’s another tribute to the short story, poet, screenplay writing queen Parker (August 22, 1893 – June 7, 1967), this time from fellow blogger BCarter3 — and make sure to click her post to read the poem’s surprise ending …
It’s been 124 years since the birth of Dorothy Parker. Poet, critic, short story writer, political activist, and one of the greatest wits of the 20th century.
I do not like my state of mind; I’m bitter, querulous, unkind. I hate my legs, I hate my hands, I do not yearn for lovelier lands. I dread the dawn’s recurrent light; I hate to go to bed at night. I snoot at simple, earnest folk. I cannot take the gentlest joke. I find no peace in paint or type. My world is but a lot of tripe. I’m disillusioned, empty-breasted. For what I think, I’d be arrested. I am not sick, I am not well. My quondam dreams are shot to hell. My soul is crushed, my spirit sore; I do not like me any more. I cavil, quarrel, grumble, grouse. I ponder…
Dorothy Parker (August 22, 1893 – June 7, 1967) week here at Happiness Between Tails continues! Ever the master of using a brilliant bow of wit to snare darkness with light, here’s three more of her famed quotations …
“I hate writing. I love having written.”
“Living well is the best revenge.”
“I’d like to have money. And I’d like to be a good writer. These two can come together, and I hope they will, but if that’s too adorable, I’d rather have money.”
a poem …
Razors pain you.
Rivers are damp.
Acids stain you and
drugs cause cramps.
Guns aren’t lawful.
Nooses give.
Gas smells awful.
You might as well live.
Have you read or watched anything by Dorothy Parker?
Born on this day in 1893 Dorothy Parker, writer & poet is possibly best known for her famous wit. Her one liners are sharp as a knife. Lines like “A girls best friend is her mutter” or “The cure for boredom is curiosity, there is no cure for curiosity”. Her wit developed at an early age when she lost her mother and her father remarried. She refused to call her stepmother anything civil and referred to her as the housekeeper.
She joked that she married to cover up her Jewish background and avoid anti-Semitism. She was an avid anti-fascist and became aligned with left leaning politics in the 1930s. She was blacklisted in Hollywood in the 1950s McCarthy era as a communist.
“Excuse my dust” was her suggestion for her epitaph. When she died in 1967 she bequeathed her estate to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. After his death her estate…
