Flowers For Socrates

by NONA BLYTH CLOUD

“Men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses.”

 “Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes clean to the bone.”

 “I hate writing, I love having written.”

“By the time you swear you’re his,
Shivering and sighing,
And he vows his passion is
Infinite, undying –
Lady, make a note of this:
One of you is lying.”

Dorothy Parker (1893-1967) may be the most quoted – and misquoted – woman in America.

Her formal education ended at 14, but she became a celebrated wit. Parker was a founding member of the famed Algonquin Round Table (circa 1919-1929), a group of New York writers who lunched at the Algonquin Hotel. Regulars in the “Vicious Circle” included Robert Benchley, Alexander Woollcott, George S Kaufman, and Edna Ferber.

When the New Yorker debuted in 1925, Dorothy Parker was on the editorial board. As the magazine’s “Constant Reader,” she contributed poetry, fiction – and book reviews which pulled no punches:

On the use of “hummy” for “honey” by A.A. Milne:“It is that word ‘hummy,’ my darlings, that marks the first place in The House at Pooh Corner at which Tonstant Weader Fwowed up.”

or

“This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.”

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