by Marion Meade
214 FROM CANNES: Dorothy Parker cable to Robert Benchley, ca. October 24, 1930.
215 ARRIVING NEW YORK: Dorothy Parker cable to Robert Benchley, November 8,1930.
215 GETTING AWAY: Parker, “Reading and Writing,” The New Yorker, January 24, 1931, p. 62; The Portable Dorothy Parker, p. 527.
215 SHE WANTED TO: Parker, “Theatre,” The New Yorker, March 7, 1931, p.33.
215 IN JANUARY: Parker, “Reading and Writing,” The New Yorker, January 24, 1931, p. 62.
215 HER FIRST REVIEW: Parker, “Theatre,” The New Yorker, February 21, 1931, p. 25.
216 ESCORTING HER HOME: Author’s interview with Gertrude Macy.
216 A FRIEND LATER DESCRIBED HIM: J. Bryan III, Merry Gentlemen (and One Lady), Atheneum, 1985, p. 115; author’s interview with Allen Saalburg.
217 I AM SORRY: John 0’Hara letter to Tom O‘Hara, May 20, 1932, in John O’-Hara, Selected Letters of John 0’Hara, edited by Matthew Bruccoli, Random House, 1978, p. 63.
218 GIVEN HER LOVE FOR ANIMALS: Keats, 139.
218 OH, SOMEBODY SIGHED: Vernon Duke, Passport to Paris, Little, Brown and Co., 1955, p. 268.
219 I HAVE NO SQUASH COURTS: Prescott, p. 7.
219 DEATH AND TAXES: Parker, “Summary,” The Portable Dorothy Parker, p. 313.
219 SHE DESCRIBED HIM: In Charles Brackett’s 1934 novel Entirely Surrounded, the main character is a portrait of Dorothy at the time of her affair with McClain. Daisy Lester, a celebrated wit and nightclub singer, describes her lover as “a god-damned male whore trading on that body of his.”
219 WHEN SHE ONCE LEARNED: Bryan, p. 117.
219 DEPRESSED, DOROTHY: James Thurber, The Seal in the Bedroom & Other Predicaments, Harper Brothers, 1932, introduction by Dorothy Parker, p. x.
219 ANY ROYALTIES: Handwritten note, Robert Benchley Collection, Mugar Library.
220 SEND ME ASAW: Prescott, p. 34.
221 CAN’T FACE DECIDING: Parker, “From the Diary of a New York Lady,” The Portable Dorothy Parker, p. 332.
221 IN THE MONTHS: New York Herald Tribune, December 12, 1932.
222 SHE ASKED SOME: New York World-Telegram, September 15, 1932.
222 LIKE HERSELF: Thurber, p. viii.
223 OH, YOU CAUGHT ME: Bennett Cerf, At Random: The Reminiscences of Bennett Cerf, Random House, 1977, p. 34.
223 I HAVE NO DOUBT: Woollcott, “Our Mrs. Parker,” p. 190.
224 SHE CAREFULLY EXAMINED: Reprint, Holyoke Transcript, November 11, 1932, Tom Mooney Collection, Bancroft Library, University of California—Berkeley.
224 SHE IMMEDIATELY COMPOSED: Ibid.
224 HOW NOW, MR. PEPYS: Adams, vol. 2, p. 1121.
225 SHE AND FANNY BRICE: Author’s interview with Ruth Goetz.
225 SID PERELMAN LATER WROTE: S. J. Perelman, The Last Laugh, Simon and Schuster, 1981, pp. 171-3.
Twelve: You Might as Well Live
227 SINCE SHE AND JOHN: Parker, “Reading and Writing,” The New Yorker, March 18, 1933, p. 64; The Portable Dorothy Parker, p. 548.
227 COME ON UP: Keats, p. 160.
227 LONG I FOUGHT: Parker, “Prisoner,” The Portable Dorothy Parker, p. 316.
228 SHE’D PICK UP: Author’s interview with Clara Lester.
229 J. CLIFFORD MILLER, JR.: J. Clifford Miller letter to author, March 22, 1983.
229 ALL AT ONCE: Author’s interview with Roy Eichel.
230 HE SAID YEARS LATER: William Engle, “Dorothy Parker’s Rebounding Quips,” The American Weekly, June 15, 1947, p. 14.
230 AND WHERE DOES SHE FIND THEM: Author’s interview with Dorothy Rodgers.
230 ALAN WAS: Author’s interview with Ruth Goetz.
230 SUNK DEEP: O’Hara, p. 88.
230 COME ALONG AT ONCE: Bryan, pp. 101-102.
231 HOW CAN THEY TELL: Ibid., p. 106.
231 SHE REFUSED TO TALK: New York Herald Tribune, October 27, 1933.
232 WHEN ASKED ABOUT THE ELECTION: New York Evening Post, October 27, 1933.
232 AN EXCITED EDMUND WILSON: Edmund Wilson letter to Louise Bogan, December 12, 1933, in Wilson, Letters in Literature and Politics, p. 234.
232 I DON’T KNOW WHY: Emily Hahn letter to author, February 18, 1983.
233 HER FAMILY, SHE GRUMBLED: Dorothy Parker letter to Morris Ernst, ca. February /March 1936, Humanities Research Center, University of Texas.
233 WHEN HOWARD DIETZ: Howard Dietz, Dancing in the Dark, Quadrangle/The New York Times Book Co., 1974, p. 77.
233 THAT SAME MONTH: Sullivan, p. 204.
234 I PICKED HIM OUT: Unidentified newspaper clipping, Dorothy Parker Scrapbook (courtesy of Susan Cotton).
234 I HAD THE PLEASURE: John O’Hara letter to Ernest Hemingway, May 1935, O’-Hara, p. 107.
234 o’hara IRRITATED HER: John O’-Hara letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald, October 14-15, 1933, in Matthew J. Bruccoli, The O’Hara Concern, Random House, 1975, p. 95.
234 WRITING IN WHAT APPEARS: Dorothy Parker letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald, undated, F. Scott Fitzgerald Papers, Princeton University Library.
235 HE’S AWFUL: John O’Hara letter to William Maxwell, May 16, .1963, in O’Hara, p. 429.
236 IN ORDER TO MAKE: Author’s interview with Sally Foster.
236 OTHER FRIENDS: Author’s interview with Ruth Goetz.
236 WHEN DOTTIE FELL IN LOVE: Author’s interview with Marc Connelly.
236 MY DEAR, SHE SAID: Cooper, p. 110.
237 AMONG THOSE: Author’s interview with Marc Connelly.
237 THIS IS TO REPORT: Dorothy Parker telegram to Sara and Gerald Murphy, June 8, 1934.
238 WE ARE IN JULESBURG: New York Evening Journal, June 16, 1934.
238 so WE GOT OUT: Dorothy Parker letter to Alexander Woollcott, ca. June 1934, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
238 EYEBROWS: Author’s interview with Marc Connelly.
238 COMMUNICATION HAS BEEN: Dorothy Parker telegram to Helen Grimwood, June 19, 1934.
239 OH, THIS IS THE FIRST: Engle, p. 14.
239 OTHERWISE SHE WAS: Dorothy Parker letter to Alexander Woollcott, June 1934, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
239 DEAR SCOTT: Dorothy Parker telegram to F. Scott Fitzgerald, July 6, 1934, F. Scott Fitzgerald Papers, Princeton University Library.
240 BLAMING THE ALTITUDE: Dorothy Parker letter to Alexander Woollcott, June 1934, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
240 PROBABLY THIS WAS A WISE DECISION : Ibid.
240 THAT BIRD ONLY SINGS: Samuel Hopkins Adams, A. Woollcott: His Life and His World, Reynal & Hitchcock, 1945, p. 296.
240 GENTLEMEN: Ibid., p. 305.
241 HEARING ROSALIE STEWART’S IDEA: Dorothy Parker letter to Alexander Woollcott, August 1934, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
242 WHEN DOROTHY CONTINUED: Ibid.
242 ONCE I WAS COMING: Writers at Work, p. 81.
242 WHEN THEY GATHERED: Dorothy Herrmann, S. J. Perelman: A Life, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1986, p. 71.
243 THE DEVASTATING DOROTHY PARKER: Newspaper clippings, unidentified sources, Dorothy Parker Scrapbook.
243 DOUBLY FAMOUS: Caption accompanying Paramount publicity photograph.
244 SHE TOLD THE MURPHYS: Dorothy Parker letter to Sara and Gerald Murphy, ca. January 1935.
244 IT IS NOW CALLED: Dorothy Parker letter to Alexander Woollcott, ca. January 1935, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
244 BUT WOULD THEY: Ibid.
244 DOROTHY AND ALAN: Ibid.
244 DOROTHY EXPLAINED: Dorothy Parker letter to Harold Guinzburg, August 21, 1934.
245 SHE DISCOVERED: Writers at Work, p. 81.
245 ASIDE FROM THE WORK: Dorothy Parker letter to Alexander Woollcott, ca. January 1935, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
245 MISS PARKER, MISS PARKER: Author’s interview with Joseph Schrank.
246 IN MAY MY HEART: Parker, “Autumn Valentine,” The Portable Dorothy Parker, p. 318.
246 UPON MY HONOR: Verse attributed to Dorothy Parker, in Norman Zierold, The Moguls, Coward-McC
ann, Inc., 1969, p. 283.
247 AFTER CHRISTMAS: Dorothy Parker letter to Alexander Woollcott, ca. January 1935, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
247 WHILE REVIEWING THE GLASS KEY: Parker, “Reading and Writing,” The New Yorker, April 25, 1931, p. 91.
248 A HARD MAN: Hellman, An Unfinished Woman, p. 186.
248 HER HABIT: Ibid., p. 187.
248 DOTTIE ADMIRED LILLIAN: Author’s interview with Ruth Goetz.
249 TO INDICATE THE EMOTIONS: Author’s interview with Heywood Hale Broun.
249 DESPITE HER OPPOSING: Dorothy Parker letter to Alexander Woollcott, ca. January 1935, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
249 WHEN SHE HEARD HIS VOICE: Ibid.
250 OH, GOODY: Wilson, The Thirties, p. 360.
250 GARBAGE THOUGH THEY TURN OUT: Writers at Work, p. 81.
251 DEAR HAROLD: Dorothy Parker letter to Harold Guinzburg, ca. 1935.
251 TWO YEARS EARLIER: New York Evening Post, October 27, 1933.
Thirteen: Good Fights
252 THEY HAVE, HE RECOUNTED: John O’Hara letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald, April 1936, O’Hara, pp. 116-17.
253 DOTTIE AND ALAN: Robert Benchley letter to Gertrude Benchley, April 27, 1936, Mugar Library, Boston University.
253 HER AMBIVALENCE: Cooper, p. 57.
253 DON STEWART RECALLED: Stewart, p. 226.
254 DOROTHY BEGAN MOVING AWAY: Parker, “Not Enough,” New Masses, March 14, 1939, pp. 3-4.
254 SHE FLATTERED DOROTHY: Stewart, p. 234.
255 I CANNOT TELL YOU: Parker, “Not Enough,” New Masses, March 14, 1939, pp. 3-4.
255 WITH MORE GENEROSITY: Stewart, p. 228.
256 ALAN WAS: Author’s interview with Budd Schulberg.
256 AS ROBERT BENCHLEY WOULD: Robert Benchley letter to Gertrude Benchley, August 13, 1938, Mugar Library, Boston University.
256 DOROTHY MEANWHILE: Parker, “Not Enough,” New Masses, March 14, 1939, pp. 3-4.
256 WHEN THE TRAIN: Norman Corwin, “Corwin on Media,” Westways, November 1980, p. 64.
256 HE PAID TWENTY DOLLARS: Robert Benchley letter to Gertrude Benchley, April 27, 1936, Mugar Library, Boston University.
256 HE REACTED: Robert Benchley letter to Sara and Gerald Murphy, July 1, 1937.
257 I saw SOME: Dorothy Parker speech, February 6, 1941, to Disney Unit of Screen Cartoon Guild.
257 EXPECTING STUDIOS: Nancy Lynn Schwartz, The Hollywood Writers’ War, Alfred A. Knopf, 1982, p. 13.
257 AT A MEETING: Ibid., 69.
258 I DO NOT FEEL: Parker, “To Richard — with Love,” The Screen Guilds’ Magazine , May 1936, p. 8.
258 HER ANGER: Parker, Screen Cartoon Guild speech.
258 THAT SONOFABITCH: Schwartz, p. 124.
258 NOW, LOOK, BABY: Parker, Screen Cartoon Guild speech.
259 WE HAVEN’T ANY ROOTS: Perelman, p. 173.
260 THERE WAS NO CELLAR: Dorothy Parker, “Destructive Decoration,” in 20th Century Decorating, Architecture, and Gardens: 80 Years of Ideas and Pleasure from House and Garden, Mary Jane Pool, ed., Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1980, pp. 178-9.
260 ALAN, LITHE: Author’s interview with Lester Trauch.
260 IT WAS AUGUST WEATHER: Parker, “Destructive Decoration.”
261 THAT’S THEIR PROBLEM: Perelman, p. 176.
261 IT WAS THE DEPRESSION: Author’s interview with Lester Trauch.
262 SOME YEARS LATER: David O. Selznick, Memo from David 0. Selznick, Rudy Behlmer, ed., The Viking Press, 1972, p. 96.
262 THEY WOULD SPRING: Parker interview, Columbia University Oral History Research Office.
262 SHE SAID HAPPILY: Newspaper clipping, April 24, 1937, unidentified source.
263 SHE ALSO LIKED TO PRETEND: Parker interview, Columbia University Oral History Research Office.
263 AT THE OSCAR PRESENTATIONS: Ronald Bowers, The Selznick Players, A.S. Barnes and Co., 1976, p. 27.
263 OVER THE YEARS: Author’s interview with Frances Goodrich.
263 HOW DID YOU KNOW: New York American, December 15, 1936.
263 GOODRICH FOUND: Author’s interview with Frances Goodrich.
264 SHE WAS GREAT: Author’s interview with Ruth Goetz.
264 ANOTHER SKEPTIC: Author’s interview with Allen Saalburg.
264 HE WOULD BE WITH us: Thomas Guinzburg taped interview with Columbia University Oral History Research Office.
264 DICK MYERS WROTE: Richard E. Myers letter to Alice Lee Myers, January 14, 1937.
265 THEY DECIDED IT WOULD BE: Parker, “Destructive Decoration.”
266 NEAR THE HOUSE: Ibid.
266 WRITER JOSEPH SCHRANK OBSERVED: Author’s interview with Joseph Schrank.
266 FIFTY-SECOND STREET: Parker, “Destructive Decoration.”
266 SID PERELMAN GAZED: Author’s interview with Allen Saalburg.
267 HE WAS, JOSEPH SCHRANK RECALLED: Author’s interview with Joseph Schrank.
267 I’M AWFULLY LAZY: Dorothy Parker letter to Fred B. Millett, May 27, 1937, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
267 RUTH GOETZ NOTICED: Author’s interview with Ruth Goetz.
267 WHEN THE CAMPBELLS: Ibid.
268 IT WAS THE WEIRD HOURS: Author’s interview with Roy Eichel.
268 AS MARC CONNELLY REMEMBERED: Author’s interview with Marc Connelly.
268 THROUGHOUT THE VISIT: Dorothy Parker letter to Morris Ernst, ca. February/ March 1936, Humanities Research Center, University of Texas.
268 THE OTHER MRS. CAMPBELL: Author’s interview with Marc Connelly.
268 SHE FIRED OURFARMER: Dorothy Parker letter to Alexander Woollcott, September 2, 1942, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
268 HORTE FELT: Ibid.
269 IT’S AS HOT AS HELL: Hellman, An Unfinished Woman, p. 188.
269 FROM NOW ON: Author’s interview with Ruth Goetz.
269 USUALLY THE GROUP: Ibid.
270 IN APRIL 1938: Daily Worker, April 28, 1938, p. 4. The list of signatories supporting the Soviet trial verdict included Nelson Algren, Langston Hughes, Harold Clurman, Lillian Hellman, Malcolm Cowley, and Irwin Shaw.
270 IT WAS QUITE BRIEF: Author’s interview with Ring Lardner, Jr.
270 EVERYONE AT THAT TIME: Author’s interview with Budd Schulberg.
271 THE FOLLOWING SIX PIECES OF EVIDENCE : Federal Bureau of Investigation, files.
272 OF THIS NUMBER: The Hollywood Nineteen included writers Bertolt Brecht, Richard Collins, Gordon Kahn, Howard Koch, and Waldo Salt; actor Larry Parks; actor-director Irving Pichel; directors Lewis Milestone and Robert Rossen; along with the Hollywood Ten: writers Alvah Bessie, Lester Cole, Ring Lardner, Jr., John Howard Lawson, Albert Maltz, Samuel Ornitz, and Dalton Trumbo, writer-producer Adrian Scott, and directors Herbert Biberman and Edward Dmytryk.
272 DOROTHY LOOKED PUZZLED: Hellman, An Unfinished Woman, pp. 190-1.
272 IN 1937 SHE WROTE: Dorothy Parker, “Incredible, Fantastic ... and True,” New Masses, November 23, 1937, pp. 15-16.
274 SHE SUSPECTED : Lillian Hellman, Scoundrel Time, Little, Brown, 1976 (Bantam edition), p. 41.
274 A MEMBER AT LARGE: U.S. Congress, House Committee on Un-American Activities, Communist Infiltration of Hollywood Motion Picture Industry, Hearings, Eighty second Congress, Part 4, September 19, 1951. Lillian Hellman was the only one of the five writers named by Martin Berkeley to respond to his charges. She denied knowing him and being present at the meeting.
275 I HAVEN’T THE FAINTEST: Parker interview, Columbia University Oral History Research Office.
275 HE DESCRIBED THEIR NEW QUARTERS : Alan Campbell letter to Harold Guinzburg, ca. July 6, 1937.
276 GARSON KANIN REMEMBERED: Garson Kanin, Hollywood, The Viking Press, 1974, p. 284.
277 OH COME, MY LOVE: Dorothy Parker, “The Passionate Screen Writer To His Love,” Marc Connelly estate.
278 DOROTHY THOUGHT: Parker speech, Screen Cartoon Guild.
278 BUT SHE ALSO BELIEVED: Parker speech, Seven Arts, p. 135.
Fourteen: Bad Fights
279 NATHANAEL WEST FINISHED: S. J. Perelman, “And Did You Once See Irving Plain?” in The Most of S. J. Perelman, Simon and Schuster, 1958, p. 599.
280 HAVING ALWAYS FOUND HER: F. Scott Fitzgerald to Gerald Murphy, September 14, 1940, in The Letters of F. Scott Fitzgerald , Andrew Turnbull, ed., Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1963, pp. 429-30.
280 IT’S A LONG STORY: Hellman, An Unfinished Woman, p. 57.
281 BENCHLEY TOLD HIS WIFE : Robert Benchley letter to Gertrude Benchley, August 14, 1937, Mugar Library, Boston University.
282 DOROTHY WOULD RATHER: Dorothy Parker letter to Alexander Woollcott, December 1940, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
282 IT TURNED OUT : Hellman, An Unfinished Woman, p. 87.
282 THE RICH AND FAMOUS: Hellman, Pentimento. A Book of Portraits, Little, Brown and Co., 1973 (New American Library edition), pp. 102-3.
283 THE LOYALIST CAUSE: Leland Stowe letter to author, September 15, 1982.
284 I COULDN’T IMAGINE: Dorothy, Parker, “Spain, For Heaven’s Sake!” (originally titled “Who Might Be Interested”), Mother Jones, February/March 1986, p.42; Parker, “Not Enough,” New Masses, March 14, 1939, pp. 3-4.
284 DOTTIE PARKER IS HERE: Martha Gellhorn, “Guerre de Plume,” The Paris Review, Spring 1981, pp. 280-301.
284 ALL DAY LONG: Parker, “Not Enough,” New Masses, March 4, 1939.
284 SHE PREFERRED NIGHT RAIDS: Parker, “Incredible, Fantastic ... and True,” New Masses, November 23, 1937.
285 THEY DON’TCRY: Parker, “Spain, For Heaven’s Sake.” Mother Jones, February /March 1986.
285 DESCRIBING HER TRAVELS: Hellman, An Unfinished Woman, p. 88.
285 DESPITE HER COJONES: Lillian Hellman’s first writings about the Spanish Civil War appeared two years after Dorothy’s death. In 1981, Martha Gellhorn published a long article in The Paris Review, accusing Hellman of substituting fiction for fact, and combed newspaper clippings and her own notes from the period in an attempt to show that Hellman’s stories were apocryphal. Hellman, Gellhorn charged, had written a great part for herself throughout. “She is the shining heroine who overcomes hardship, hunger, fear, danger—down stage center—in a tormented country.”
In 1980, Hellman had filed a defamation suit against Mary McCarthy for calling her a dishonest writer, but she failed to sue Gellhorn, whom she said had written the article out of pique because Hellman had been “not pleasant” to her in An Unfinished Woman.