Well-known for her caustic wit, Dorothy Parker’s sharp tongue and intelligence, as well as her bravado and liberated attitude during the Prohibition Era, made her one of the United States most celebrated writers of the 20th century. Her talents ranged from social observation to literary criticism, including playwriting and scriptwriting. While Parker’s serious writing career was launched at

Vanity Fair

as a drama critic and flourished at the newly-founded

New Yorker

magazine as a book reviewer, she is most celebrated for her poetry and short stories.

Dorothy Parker was born Dorothy Rothschild on August 22, 1893, in West End, New Jersey, and was raised in New York City’s Upper West Side, the youngest of four children. Dorothy’s mother, Eliza, died in 1898. Her father, Henry,

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Citation: Geyer, Bernadette. "Dorothy Parker". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 27 April 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3479, accessed 19 March 2024.]

3479 Dorothy Parker 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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