The degree of separation between Dorothy Parker and the president of France is 1. That would be Carla Bruni. The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, took Bruni on a trip to Egypt over the Christmas holiday, stepping out into headlines with the stunning French-Italian supermodel/singer. Sarkozy recently announced he and his wife split up. With Bruni…
Author: Kevin Fitzpatrick
I'm a writer and sightseeing guide. I'm the author and editor of seven books tied to New York history. I started the Dorothy Parker Society in 1999 with friends at the Algonquin Hotel.
New Parker Book Coming in 2008
In exclusive Dorothy Parker Society news, Penguin Classics will be bringing out a new Parker book in May 2008. It is The Ladies of the Corridor, a play she wrote in 1953 in collaboration with Arnaud D’Usseau. The book has not been available in more than 50 years, and Penguin Classics is bringing it out…
Copyright Fight Makes London Papers
The Dorothy Parker copyright fight was the subject of a Saturday article in the London Telegraph. The columnist says of Penguin’s editors, “we can wonder if they’re proud that their edition included evidence of little more scholarship than it takes to use a photocopier” and “There’s no law against slapdash publishing.” He writes that although…
Neko Case Shout Out to Dottie
Singer-Songwriter Neko Case, who’s latest album (or CD, or download) is called Fox Confessor Brings the Flood, just wrote an essay for Poetry magazine. In it, she says, “Dorothy Parker makes me manic! I can’t even make it through the first three lines of “The Godmother” without bursting into tears.” It is a nice essay…
Penguin Potshots & Silverstein Stew: Ruminations on the Parker Book Battle
Not a single Sunday newspaper pundit yesterday mentioned the Dorothy Parker Copyright Fight. Maureen Dowd dropped a Parker quote into her column, however, she was writing about the screenwriters strike. The entire media-publishing blogosphere rolled over and played dead on this one, so I will take a crack at a post mortem. This past week…
Penguin Wins U.S. Decision in Copyright Trial
The seven years of ongoing legal machinations of the Dorothy Parker Copyright Case, Stuart Y. Silverstein vs. Penguin Putnam, Inc., reached yesterday what could be the final phase. United States District Court Judge John F. Keenan issued on Nov. 7, 2007, a Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law (complete PDF here), and in it…