The second revision in sixty years, this sublime collection ranges over the verse, stories, essays, and journalism of one of the twentieth century's most quotable authors. In this new twenty-first-century edition, devoted admirers will be sure to find their favorite verse and stories. But a variety of fresh material has also been added to create a fuller, more authentic picture of her life's work. At the heart of her serious work lie her political writings dealing with race, labor, and international politics. "A Dorothy Parker Sampler" blends the sublime and the silly with the terrifying, a sort of tasting menu of verse, stories, essays, political journalism, a speech on writing, plus a catchy off-the-cuff rhyme she never thought to write down. The introduction of two new sections is intended to provide the richest possible sense of Parker herself. "Self-Portrait" reprints an interview she did in 1956 with The Paris Review, part of a famed ongoing series of conversations ("Writers at Work") conducted with the best of twentieth-century writers. "Letters: 1905-1962," which might be subtitled "Mrs. Parker Completely Uncensored," presents correspondence written over the period of a half century, beginning in 1905 when twelve-year-old Dottie wrote her father during a summer vacation on Long Island, and concluding with a 1962 missive from Hollywood describing her fondness for Marilyn Monroe. Features an introduction by Marion Meade and cover illustrations by renowned graphic artist Seth, creator of the comic series Palooka-ville For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

The Portable Dorothy ParkerIntroductionSuggestions for Further ReadingPart One: The Original Portable as Arranged by Dorothy Parker in1944The Lovely LeaveArrangement in Black and WhiteThe SexesThe Standard of LivingMr. DurantThe WaltzThe Wonderful Old GentlemanSong of the Shirt, 1941Enough Rope (Poems)A Telephone CallHere We AreDusk before FireworksYou Were Perfectly FineMrs. Hofstadter on Josephine StreetSoldiers of the RepublicToo BadThe Last TeaBig BlondeSunset Gun (Poems)Just A Little OneLady with a LampThe Little HoursHorsieGlory in the DaytimeNew York to DetroitDeath and Taxes (Poems)The Custard HeartFrom the Diary of a New York LadyCousin LarryLittle CurtisSentimentClothe the NakedWar Song (Poem)Part Two: Other WritingsSuch a Pretty Little Picture, Smart Set, December 1922Advice to the Little Peyton Girl, Harper's Bazaar, February 1933The Game, Cosmopolitan, December 1948The Banquet of Crow, The New Yorker, December 14, 1957The Bolt Behind the Blue, Esquire, December 1958Interior Desecration, Vogue, April 15, 1917Week's End, (New York) Life, July 21, 1927My Home Town, McCall's, January 1928Not Enough, New Masses, March 14, 1939Destructive Decoration, House and Garden, November 1942From Vanity Fair, 1918-1919Hedda Gabler by Henrik IbsenAn Ideal Husband by Oscar WildeRedemption by Leo TolstoiDear Brutus by J. M. BarrieFrom Ainslee's (In Broadway Playhouses), 1921The Emperor Jones by Eugene O'NeillZiegfeld Follies of 1921From The New Yorker (Substituting for Robert Benchley), 1931The Barretts of Wimpole Street by Rudolf BesierGive Me Yesterday by A. A. MilneThe Admirable Crichton by J. M. BarrieFrom The New Yorker (Constant Reader), 1927-1931The President's Daughter by Nan BrittonMen Without Women by Ernest HemingwayHappiness by William Lyon PhelpsA President Is Born by Fannie Hurst; Claire Ambler by Booth TarkingtonLiterary RotariansAppendicitis by Thew Wright, M.D.; Art of the Night by George Jean NathanThe House at Pooh Corner by A. A. MilneRound Up by Ring LardnerForty Thousand Sublime and Beautiful Thoughts, compiled by Charles Noel DouglasThe Glass Key by Dashiell HammettDawn by Theodore DreiserThe Grandmother of the Aunt of the GardenerFrom The New York Times Book Review, 1957The Road to Miltown, Or Under the Spreading Atrophy by S. J. PerelmanFrom Esqure, 1958-1959The American Earthquake by Edmund Wilson; The Subterraneans by Jack Kerouac; Ice Palace by Edna FerberBreakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote; The Poorhouse Fair by John UpdikeThe Years With Ross by James ThurberPart Three: A Dorothy Parker SamplerAny Porch, Vanity Fair, September 15, 1915Sorry, the Line Is Busy, Life, April 21, 1921In the Throes, (New York) Life, September 16, 1924For R.C.B., The New Yorker, January 7, 1928Untitled Birthday Lament, c. 1927The Garter, The New Yorker, September 8, 1928Sophisticated Poetry-and the Hell With It, New Masses, June 27, 1939Introduction: The Seal in the Bedroom and Other Predicaments, by James Thurber, 1932The Function of the Writer, Address, Esquire Magazine Symposium, October 1958 (extract)New York at 6:30 P.M., Esquire, November 1964Self-Portrait from The Paris Review, "Writers at Work," 1956Letters 1905-1962To Henry Rothschild, 1905To Henry Rothschild, 1905To Harold Ross, 1927To Harold Ross, no dateTo Seward Collins, 1927To Helen Rothschild Droste, 1929To Robert Charles Benchley, 1929To Sara and Gerald Murphy, 1934To F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1934To Alexander Woolcott, 1935To Harold Guinzburg, 1935To Helen Rothschild Grimwood, c. 1939To Malcolm Cowley, 1958To Morton Zabel, 1958To John Patrick, 1962Index