Skip to main content

The Devil Touched My Tongue: The World & Wit of Dorothy Parker

Actress-playwright RoseLynn Katz will perform her original one-woman show about Dorothy Parker at the Enka-Candler Library.

Photo of actress-playwright RoseLynn Katz.Dorothy Parker (1893 –1967) was an American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist best known for her wit, wisecracks, and eye for urban foibles during the Roaring Twenties. From a conflicted and unhappy childhood, Parker rose to acclaim for her literary output in Vanity Fair, Vogue and The New Yorker and as a founding member of the Algonquin Round Table. Later, she pursued screenwriting in Hollywood which resulted in two Academy Award nominations; but, these efforts were curtailed as her involvement in left-wing politics led to her being blacklisted.

The Devil Touched My Tongue spans Dorothy Parker's bittersweet life through two world wars, prohibition, and the civil rights movement by revealing friendships with such luminaries as Lillian Hellman and F. Scott Fitzgerald plus problems with alcohol, celebrity, a tumultuous love life and several suicide attempts.

Famed as one of the most sparkling, incisive, and darkly humorous American wits of the 20th century, Parker authored 33 books of fiction, poetry, and criticism. The Portable Dorothy Parker has never gone out of print, a distinction shared only with The Portable Bible and The Portable William Shakespeare.

This free program will be Tuesday, October 9 at 7 p.m. at the Fairview Library. For more information, contact the library at 250-6484 or email fairview.library@buncombecounty.org.

Filter News:

Translate Options

Article Information

Updated Oct 04, 2012 12:27 PM
Published Oct 04, 2012 12:00 PM