Overview

An expansive and illuminating study of legendary writer Dorothy Parker’s life and legacy in Hollywood from the author of the “fascinating” (Town & Country) Three Martini Afternoons at the Ritz. The glamorous extravagances and devasting lows of her time in Hollywood are revealed as never before in this fresh new biography of Dorothy Parker—from leaving New York City to work on numerous classic screenplays such as the 1937 A Star Is Born to the devastation of alcoholism, a miscarriage, and her husband’s suicide. Parker’s involvement with anti-fascist and anti-racist groups, which led to her ultimate blacklisting, and her early work in the civil rights movement that inspired her to leave her entire estate to the NAACP are also explored as never before. Just as she did with her “deliriously fast-paced and erudite” (Library Journal) dual biography of Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath, Gail Crowther brings Parker back to life on the page in all her wit, grit, and brilliance.

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9781982185794

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Reviews

“[A] briskly detailed, fluently insightful, and dramatically reorienting biography . . . An eye-opening reclamation and appreciation.” —Booklist, starred review “Crowther thoughtfully considers Parker’s ambivalence about Hollywood through her poetry and fiction, failed romances, miscarriages, suicide attempts and activism. Parker was often abrasive, but Crowther considers Parker empathetically, as a sui generis who resisted becoming a cog in the filmmaking machinery.”—Los Angeles Times “An ambitious, thoughtfully researched portrait of an often brilliant yet irascible talent.”—Kirkus Reviews “Highly accessible . . . Parker continues to fascinate, and Crowther's biography is a welcome addition to the effort to understand such a complicated woman.” —Shelf Awareness

“Crowther thoughtfully considers Parker’s ambivalence about Hollywood through her poetry and fiction, failed romances, miscarriages, suicide attempts and activism. Parker was often abrasive, but Crowther considers Parker empathetically, as a sui generis who resisted becoming a cog in the filmmaking machinery.”—Los Angeles Times “An ambitious, thoughtfully researched portrait of an often brilliant yet irascible talent.”—Kirkus Reviews “Highly accessible . . . Parker continues to fascinate, and Crowther's biography is a welcome addition to the effort to understand such a complicated woman.” —Shelf Awareness

Author Information

Gail Crowther is a freelance writer, researcher, and academic. She is the author of The Haunted Reader and Sylvia Plath and the coauthor of Sylvia Plath in Devon: A Year’s Turning and These Ghostly Archives: The Unearthing of Sylvia Plath. Gail divides her time between the North of England with her dog, George, and London. As a feminist vegan she engages with politics concerning gender, power, and animal rights.

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