The Algonquin Hotel is not going to let the centennial of the first luncheon of the Algonquin Round Table pass without notice. The national literary landmark has planned an entire summer of events to celebrate the Vicious Circle, which began as a welcome home roast for critic Alexander Woollcott in June 1919. To mark the…
Tag: history
Electronically, Parker’s Ills are Spilled Again
In a month when Michael Jackson and Led Zeppelin both put out new albums, Dorothy Parker joins their company with new material from her longtime publisher. While Jackson’s heirs performed a séance to bring out new songs and Jimmy Page himself remastered Whole Lotta Love, Penguin Classics turned to their own house archivist on all…
Incredible 1920s Documentary Discovered
A new video surfaced recently that’s just sensational to watch for anyone that adores the 1920s and the Algonquin Round Table era. It is called New York in the Twenties, and first aired on American TV in 1961. This has to be one of the best videos of the era. The amount of home movies…
Brooklyn and the Algonquin Round Table
I wanted to write about Brooklyn and the Algonquin Round Table today, because the Brooklyn Book Festival is on Sunday. I’ll be there talking about my new book at Booth 158 with Jamie Brenner. While Dorothy Parker never had a love nest in Brooklyn, or tried to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge, there are five…
Vicious Circle Walking Tour Sept. 29
The Algonquin Round Table comes alive in the only New York walking tour devoted to the famed literary group. The 2-hour walk celebrates Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, George S. Kaufman, Harpo Marx, Edna Ferber, Franklin P. Adams, Heywood Broun, Harold Ross, Robert Sherwood, Marc Connelly and the rest of the Vicious Circle. The Algonquin Round…
Sad Demise of Dorothy Parker’s Uncle on the Titanic
The sinking of the RMS Titanic 100 years ago this week has been generating headlines for days. The disaster also had a huge impact on the life of Dorothy Parker, who lost her uncle in the tragedy at sea, an event that in some small way contributed to the declining health of her father. Reading…
Walk in Dorothy Parker’s Footsteps on April 28 Walking Tour
The campaign to get Dorothy Parker into the New York City subway system’s Poetry in Motion program will be part of the walking tour on April 28, with the launch event on April 30 in Brooklyn at the New York Distill Co. (home to Dorothy Parker American Gin). The walking tour and the launch night…
Murphy Daughter Passes Away at 81
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Honoria Murphy Donnelly dies at age 81. Mrs. Donnelly, whose book about her parents, Sara and Gerald Murphy, was published in 1982, died of liver cancer Dec. 22 at a hospice in Palm Beach, Fla. Mrs. Donnelly was described as one of the last links to the generation of writers that included…