Dorothy Parker

Dorothy Rothschild was born on August 22, 1893 into a family of comfortable financial means. Raised by her father and Stepmother after her mother's death, she was given an excellent education for the times. Highly intelligent, she pursued a career after her formal education and proved herself to be one of the early feminists. She started writing poems early and her witty remarks are still alive today.

Dorothy's uncle, Martin Rothschild, and his wife Lizzie, were aboard the Titanic in 1912. Lizzie survived, but Martin Rothschild did not. Martin's death was particularly hard for Dorothy's father, Henry Rothschild, and he died shortly thereafter in 1913.

In 1917 she was asked to join the staff at Vanity Fair magazine and to marry Edward Pond Parker II, both of which she agreed to gladly. Eddie Parker soon was stationed overseas and Dorothy became one of the founding members of the Algonquin Hotel "Round Table". Eddie arrived back from the war with an unfortunate drinking problem, and Dorothy decided she loved her new life more than she did him.

In 1922 she had an affair with the emerging playwright Charles MacArthur, who it turned out was having multiple affairs with other women.

They were separated far more than together and divorced in 1928. She spent a very dramatic period of time in New York City, doing theater reviews, spending time with her Algonquin friends, drinking far too much.

She published poems and short stories and in 1929 won the national O. Henry Prize for the short story "Big Blonde". This established her as a serious writer. She married Alan Campbell when she was forty and he was twenty-nine. He encouraged her to go Hollywood where they became a very successful screenwriting team.

Beginning in 1933 they received screen credits for fifteen films, most notably A Star Is Born (1937) which was nominated for an Academy Award. The time spent in Hollywood were the most lucrative years of her career, yet she spent every dime of it.

She was blacklisted in Hollywood in the 1950s for alleged communist sympathies.

She divorced and remarried Alan Campbell and in 1963 he died. She spent her last years in New York City, in very poor health due to heavy drinking and making do on very little money. Often, she would have to call on friends like Lillian Hellman to help her financially.

Pictured on a 29¢ US commemorative postage stamp in the Literary Arts series, issued 22 August 1992.

Profiled in book "Funny Ladies" by Stephen M. Silverman. [1999]

She is nominated for the 2008 New Jersey Hall of Fame for her services and contributions to literature.

She was nominated for the 2012 New Jersey Hall of Fame for her contributions in the General Category.

She was nominated for a 2013 New Jersey Hall of Fame in the General Category.

She was inducted into the 2014 New Jersey Hall of Fame in the Arts and Letters Category.