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A Journey into Dorothy Parker's New York
Taking the reader through the New York that inspired, and was in turn inspired by, the formidable Mrs. Parker, this guide uses rarely seen archival photographs from her life to illustrate Dorothy Parker's development as a writer, a formidable wit, and a public persona. Her favorite bars and salons as well as her homes and offices, most of which are still intact, are uncovered. With the charting of her colorful career, including the decade she spent as a member of the Round Table, as well as her intense private life, readers will find themselves drawn into the lavish New York City of the 1920s and 30s.
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
12 people are currently reading
150 people want to read
About the author
Kevin C. Fitzpatrick
13 books28 followersKevin C. Fitzpatrick is a New York author, public historian, and tour guide. Kevin is the author and editor of nine books that are all tied to New York history. His most recent is Dorothy Parker’s New York (Expanded Edition) from SUNY Press.
He is a fourth-generation New Yorker who launched his tour guide company Big Apple Fanatics Tours in 1999. Kevin leads city history walking tours and boat tours of Long Island.
Kevin launched the Dorothy Parker Society in 1998 and became the driving force in scores of projects around Parker’s legacy. The biggest was his campaign to bring Parker’s cremains from Baltimore to New York; he buried Parker’s urn next to her parents in 2020.
His books are always about New York: 111 Places in the Bronx That You Must Not Miss (Emons), is the first guidebook to the borough in fifty years. World War One New York: A Guide to the City’s Enduring Ties to the Great War (Globe Pequot Press) was timed to the centennial of the war and is the definitive study of Great War memorials in the region.
The Governors Island Explorer’s Guide (Globe Pequot) is the first and only guidebook to the beloved island in New York Harbor. It has more than one hundred locations and a full island history from the pre-colonial era to today.
Kevin is an expert on the Jazz Age and Speakeasy Era. Among his books are The Algonquin Round Table’s New York: A Historical Guide (Lyons Press), the only book that has a full history of the famous literary group from the 1920s, with biographies of all thirty members.
Dorothy Parker Complete Broadway, 1918-1923 (Donald Books) collects 150,000 words of Dorothy Parker’s drama reviews. Kevin edited the work, wrote the introduction, extensive notes section, and the index. Under the Table: A Dorothy Parker Cocktail Guide (Lyons Press) collects seventy five drink recipes with anecdotes, stories, and references to the Prohibition Era.
A Journey into Dorothy Parker’s New York (Roaring Forties Press) was a hit with fans and provided a detailed overview of the writer and wit’s eventful life. The Lost Algonquin Round Table: Humor, Fiction, Journalism, Criticism and Poetry From America’s Most Famous Literary Circle (Donald Books) was co-edited with Nat Benchley, a grandson of Robert Benchley. This book is the first collection of writing by more than a dozen members of the “Vicious Circle” that met at the Algonquin Hotel.
Kevin has twice won the Apple Award for Outstanding Achievement in Non-Fiction Book Writing by the Guides Association of New York City. He also shared in a third award with his friend Joanna Leban for their podcast.
Kevin is a graduate of Northeast Missouri State University. He worked in newspapers, television, magazines, advertising, marketing, and a myriad of other schemes for low pay. He is the Shepherd (president) of The Lambs and is affiliated with many other fine organizations.
He is a fourth-generation New Yorker who launched his tour guide company Big Apple Fanatics Tours in 1999. Kevin leads city history walking tours and boat tours of Long Island.
Kevin launched the Dorothy Parker Society in 1998 and became the driving force in scores of projects around Parker’s legacy. The biggest was his campaign to bring Parker’s cremains from Baltimore to New York; he buried Parker’s urn next to her parents in 2020.
His books are always about New York: 111 Places in the Bronx That You Must Not Miss (Emons), is the first guidebook to the borough in fifty years. World War One New York: A Guide to the City’s Enduring Ties to the Great War (Globe Pequot Press) was timed to the centennial of the war and is the definitive study of Great War memorials in the region.
The Governors Island Explorer’s Guide (Globe Pequot) is the first and only guidebook to the beloved island in New York Harbor. It has more than one hundred locations and a full island history from the pre-colonial era to today.
Kevin is an expert on the Jazz Age and Speakeasy Era. Among his books are The Algonquin Round Table’s New York: A Historical Guide (Lyons Press), the only book that has a full history of the famous literary group from the 1920s, with biographies of all thirty members.
Dorothy Parker Complete Broadway, 1918-1923 (Donald Books) collects 150,000 words of Dorothy Parker’s drama reviews. Kevin edited the work, wrote the introduction, extensive notes section, and the index. Under the Table: A Dorothy Parker Cocktail Guide (Lyons Press) collects seventy five drink recipes with anecdotes, stories, and references to the Prohibition Era.
A Journey into Dorothy Parker’s New York (Roaring Forties Press) was a hit with fans and provided a detailed overview of the writer and wit’s eventful life. The Lost Algonquin Round Table: Humor, Fiction, Journalism, Criticism and Poetry From America’s Most Famous Literary Circle (Donald Books) was co-edited with Nat Benchley, a grandson of Robert Benchley. This book is the first collection of writing by more than a dozen members of the “Vicious Circle” that met at the Algonquin Hotel.
Kevin has twice won the Apple Award for Outstanding Achievement in Non-Fiction Book Writing by the Guides Association of New York City. He also shared in a third award with his friend Joanna Leban for their podcast.
Kevin is a graduate of Northeast Missouri State University. He worked in newspapers, television, magazines, advertising, marketing, and a myriad of other schemes for low pay. He is the Shepherd (president) of The Lambs and is affiliated with many other fine organizations.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
October 3, 2016
I expected this to be a simple but delightful little guide book but what I got was so much more.
Fitzpatrick covers all of Dorothy's life story as well as an account of the cities residential buildings, offices, restaurants and theatres where she frequented. Since much of Dorothy's history involves those in the "vicious circle" you also learn about the other members of the round table. Also included are fascinating historical photos of the cities development as well as photos of what it looks like today. He even manages to include Dorothy's own writing, helping to make the cities locations come to life.
The most disappointing things about this book was that it had to end. Highly recommend to all Parker fans as well as anyone interested in learning more about the Vicious Circle or about life in NYC from the 1920's-1960's.
Fitzpatrick covers all of Dorothy's life story as well as an account of the cities residential buildings, offices, restaurants and theatres where she frequented. Since much of Dorothy's history involves those in the "vicious circle" you also learn about the other members of the round table. Also included are fascinating historical photos of the cities development as well as photos of what it looks like today. He even manages to include Dorothy's own writing, helping to make the cities locations come to life.
The most disappointing things about this book was that it had to end. Highly recommend to all Parker fans as well as anyone interested in learning more about the Vicious Circle or about life in NYC from the 1920's-1960's.
August 18, 2011
I truly enjoyed this book, and would recommend it to any Dorothy Parker fan. It would also make a fine read for a person interested in the history of New York City, especially during the 1920s and 1930s. I felt very sad reading about all the wonderful theaters and other buildings that have been torn down to make room for parking lots or office buildings, and the like. We do this so much in the U.S., whereas in Europe buildings can stand for centuries and centuries.
Another feature of this book that I enjoyed was its intimate details about Parker's private life, her friends and associates, and the "Vicious Circle" members themselves. Reading the book made me feel even more curious about these people, and interested in reading books written by them. The bibliography included some excellent books that I shall be adding to my to-read list as well.
Enjoy!
Another feature of this book that I enjoyed was its intimate details about Parker's private life, her friends and associates, and the "Vicious Circle" members themselves. Reading the book made me feel even more curious about these people, and interested in reading books written by them. The bibliography included some excellent books that I shall be adding to my to-read list as well.
Enjoy!
January 3, 2016
You don't need to know Dorothy Parker in order to enjoy this book, but it will help. This book depicts New York and Dorothy Parker during the roaring 20' until the 60' with the help of the author's work, photos and the apropriate historical context. I enjoyed it.
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April 23, 2010A Journey Into Dorothy Parker’s New York, by Kevin C. Fitzpatrick -- or is it more like an insightful and entertaining study (almost a pictorial biography) of New York’s Dorothy Parker? They are really inseparable. She embodied early 20th century New York’s literary life --especially that of the Jazz Age -- quite as much as she herself was shaped by it. This in-depth guide to the numerous surviving sites associated with her opens windows into many aspects of American culture and society of those days simply by placing the eventful, often sad life of this frail yet somehow indomitable woman front and center. It’s a very clever concept and works well even if you don’t actually bring the book to the city with you to seek out these locations.
(For the record, ‘DOROTHY PARKER’ can almost be made into the anagram ‘HER DARK POETRY’, but just one letter -- a vowel, at that -- doesn’t match. I think she would have been amused, both by the idea and the near-miss.)
-Alan
(For the record, ‘DOROTHY PARKER’ can almost be made into the anagram ‘HER DARK POETRY’, but just one letter -- a vowel, at that -- doesn’t match. I think she would have been amused, both by the idea and the near-miss.)
-Alan
October 8, 2012
Superb narrative and guide to Dorothy Parker's New York. A guide you can use to take a walk back in time and see where the insouciant poetess and critic lived, worked and partied as well as the goings on of the Algonquin Round Table members, their hangouts, friends and the world of theater in its heyday. An absolute must for any fan of Parker and the Jazz Age.
February 14, 2013
More than a history book or photo collection, this is a tour guide of a great slice of NY and one of NY's one-of-a-kinds, Dorothy Parker. Pick up this book, pick up a martini, and go to town!
June 23, 2017
A Journey into Dorothy Parker's New York is an excellent primer to those who are not entirely familiar with Parker, the Algonquin Round Table or New York in the writer's heyday between the wars. Although the book only touches on a wide range of topics within the writer's life and within the ever-changing landscape of the literary side of New York City, fans of Parker will get just as much enjoyment out of this book as newcomers to her work.
The book's layout provides plenty of room for photos, maps, postcards and other notes of interest in Parker's life, though it does seem at times the layout is reminiscent of an elementary school social studies book. The key highlights of this book is that it not only gives you Parker's place in her own timeline, but her place in the current events that were swirling around her, whether it was while she lived in New York or wrote screenplays in Hollywood.
Although this book is a celebration of a beloved figure in twentieth century literature and how the city shaped her life and career, it also presents the way that New York is always trying to reinvent itself, moving out the aged and in with the latest trends. More than half of the locations in this book that play a pivotal role in Parker's life no longer exist, and much of the rest have been repurposed to fit a more modern lifestyle, one that doesn't have as much of a need for residential hotels or tiny theaters with less than 200 seats. But it shows that as much as it seems transformed now, the city was doing the exact same thing in Parker's time, and her work was influenced both directly and indirectly by it.
The book's layout provides plenty of room for photos, maps, postcards and other notes of interest in Parker's life, though it does seem at times the layout is reminiscent of an elementary school social studies book. The key highlights of this book is that it not only gives you Parker's place in her own timeline, but her place in the current events that were swirling around her, whether it was while she lived in New York or wrote screenplays in Hollywood.
Although this book is a celebration of a beloved figure in twentieth century literature and how the city shaped her life and career, it also presents the way that New York is always trying to reinvent itself, moving out the aged and in with the latest trends. More than half of the locations in this book that play a pivotal role in Parker's life no longer exist, and much of the rest have been repurposed to fit a more modern lifestyle, one that doesn't have as much of a need for residential hotels or tiny theaters with less than 200 seats. But it shows that as much as it seems transformed now, the city was doing the exact same thing in Parker's time, and her work was influenced both directly and indirectly by it.
June 3, 2016
Discovered this one at the Bookmine in Jacksonville, FL - a second hand bookstore that I could move a cot in and live there! Seems like acres of books to discover within the store walls - Nirvana for sure. The book is a view of New York through the eyes of the Algonquin (sp?) Roundtable group. Neat book with loads of photos of the NY of the time and how Dorothy fit into it. May not be for everyone since it is heavy on the NY buildings but what a treat.
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July 28, 2011An entertaining and informative guide to the places where the redoubtable Mrs. Parker lived, worked and played.
April 18, 2024
This is a gently appreciative account of Dorothy Parker's life. The angle – how connected she was to Manhattan, told through many photos and maps – works nicely. Although, as the writer explains, she lived in other cities and countries. Not a lot on her apparently troubled inner life. All in all, a pleasant diversion.
June 7, 2017
I love Kevin's work and I cannot rate this book highly enough. If you're a Dorothy Parker fan or a fan of NYC history, definitely look up his tours, too!
September 7, 2016
This is a half-baked biography of Dorothy Parker in the form of scanty sketches of the buildings and streets in New York. I expected to get a touch of the ethos of 1920s New York, but I guess the task should better be left to Dorothy Parker's own short stories than a book like this.
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March 7, 2014It was interesting and had lots of great photos. It makes you want to wise crack and read some Dorothy Parker.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 2, 2013
A must read for any Parker fan.
April 10, 2014
Nice pictures. Biographical notes. Scanned.
July 7, 2016
the Lush Life of Dorothy P. I say no more, although a very colorful life & witty & what a writer~~
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews