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born 1893Jewish-American author Dorothy Parker rose to fame as a critic at Vanity Fair and still enjoys a devoted fan base today for her irreverent wit. Never afraid to poke fun at established authorities, romantic conventions, or herself, Parker brought a daringly sharp tongue to her work as a poet, columnist, screenwriter, and civil rights activist. Her estate went to the NAACP, which honored her with a memorial garden whose entrance bears her self-penned epitaph: “Excuse my dust.”
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her quotes
"I don't know much about being a millionaire, but I'll bet I'd be a darling at it."
classic Dorothy one-liner | 1920s
"Excuse my dust."
A Group of Artists Write Their Own Epitaphs {via Rebel in Evening Clothes} | june 1925
"Four be the things I am wiser to know: Idleness, sorrow, a friend, and a foe."
Inventory | 1926
"Scratch a lover and find a foe."
Ballade of a Great Weariness | 1926
"Wherever she went, including here, it was against her better judgment."
But the one on the right | october 1929
"Wit has truth in it; wisecracking is simply calisthenics with words."
The Art of Fiction | june 1956
"There's a hell of a distance between wisecracking and wit. Wit has truth in it; wisecracking is simply calisthenics with words."
not much fun: the lost poems of dorothy parker | june 1956
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