Dorothy Parker Society

The Dorothy Parker Copyright Trial ended today. It lasted seven days; the final day was devoted to concluding the video deposition of Randall Calhoun. The monotonous testimony considered the line of questions that took up most of yesterday afternoon, defining what “poems” and “poetry” mean to scholars. Calhoun, an assistant professor of English from Ball…

The Dorothy Parker Copyright Trial rolled into its second week today, but the end is in sight. Judge John F. Keenan today predicted it would wrap up tomorrow or Thursday. The final live witness was called today, Penguin Books president and publisher Kathryn Court. The courtroom also got its first look, via video monitor, at…

In an old cowboys and Indians movie I once saw, I remember a cowboy throw his saddle onto the back of his horse. In between the saddle and the horse was a blanket, and underneath the blanket were a couple of burs that had been picked up someplace. When the saddle landed on the blanket…

Friday morning during Day Four of the Dorothy Parker Copyright Trial the courtroom of Judge John F. Keenan did not know what to expect of the first witness. Judge Keenan said, “I have no idea whether he’s hostile or not,” prompted by a memo from one of the attorneys in the case. The air of…

On Day Three of the Dorothy Parker Copyright Trial the mood in the courtroom changed. Possibly this was due to the fact that the court has now heard from two witnesses and moved onto two more, one in the flesh and one on a TV monitor. For a third day in a row, I was…

Splitting hairs. That is what Day Two of the Dorothy Parker Book Battle was about. This case is going to be decided by the narrowest of arguments when the case is played out. In the follow-up to Day One, plaintiff Stuart Y. Silverstein was grilled by Penguin Books’ lead defense counsel, while the second witness…