Dorothy Parker Book Club
Saturdays, 10 am-noon (Pacific), February 22 to April 5
Dorothy Parker was one of the funniest people alive in the 1920s, and one of the most famous.
Her friends included Hemingway and Fitzgerald.
When The New Yorker published their first issue, the magazine listed Parker's name next to a made-up position: "advisory editor." The magazine's founders were using Parker's fame to establish their reputation.
She was a key figure at the Algonquin Round Table, a group of humorists and playwrights that included S. J. Perelman, Robert Benchley, and Harpo Marx.
Parker was the funniest person at the table, and she was the only woman.
But her short stories are where her genius shines, and they will be our focus in this Zoom class.
Parker's stories transport us into the hearts and minds of 1920s New York, and "to a startling degree," says the writer Brendan Gill, they have "a substance, a solidity" to them. "Not the least hint of the Round Table is detectable in the stories—no sassy showing off, no making a leg at the reader. The author keeps her distance, and sometimes it is a distance great enough to remind one of Flaubert."
Over 7 weeks together, we'll read a selection of her short stories (and a few of her wittiest poems) from this edition of The Portable Dorothy Parker. A reading schedule referring to page numbers in that edition will be provided on our first night together.
The 100th anniversary of The New Yorker is the perfect time to learn about Dorothy Parker's witty work, her unusual life, her activism for social justice long before that was a thing, her years in Hollywood, and her surprising afterlife and legacy.
What book to get
Get this edition of The Portable Dorothy Parker. This is the only book that will work for this class. If you buy it using that link, a portion of the proceeds will go to support FrizzLit.
What to read before the first meeting
Read the first short story in the book, "The Lovely Leave" (p. 3) as well as the poem "Résumé" (p. 99).
All meetings are recorded
They will be sent to your email address within 48 hours of each meeting.
Who is leading this club?
Christopher Frizzelle, the former editor-in-chief of The Stranger, used to write a column called The Nightstand that was largely inspired by Dorothy Parker. He is the founder of FrizzLit and the host of the Silent Reading Party.
Art
Dorothy Parker's portraits — younger (above) and older (below) — are splendidly illustrated by Kathryn Rathke
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