Dorothy Parker: What Fresh Hell Is This? (78 page)

275 I HAVEN’T THE FAINTEST: Parker interview, Columbia University Oral History Research Office.

275 HE DESCRIBED THEIR NEW QUARTERS : Alan Campbell letter to Harold Guinzburg, ca. July 6, 1937.

276 GARSON KANIN REMEMBERED: Garson Kanin,
Hollywood
, The Viking Press, 1974, p. 284.

277 OH COME, MY LOVE: Dorothy Parker, “The Passionate Screen Writer To His Love,” Marc Connelly estate.

278 DOROTHY THOUGHT: Parker speech, Screen Cartoon Guild.

278 BUT SHE ALSO BELIEVED: Parker speech, Seven Arts, p. 135.

Fourteen: Bad Fights

279 NATHANAEL WEST FINISHED: S. J. Perelman, “And Did You Once See Irving Plain?” in
The Most of S. J
.
Perelman
, Simon and Schuster, 1958, p. 599.

280 HAVING ALWAYS FOUND HER: F. Scott Fitzgerald to Gerald Murphy, September 14, 1940, in
The Letters of F. Scott Fitzgerald
, Andrew Turnbull, ed., Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1963, pp. 429-30.

280 IT’S A LONG STORY: Hellman,
An Unfinished Woman
, p. 57.

281 BENCHLEY TOLD HIS WIFE : Robert Benchley letter to Gertrude Benchley, August 14, 1937, Mugar Library, Boston University.

282 DOROTHY WOULD RATHER: Dorothy Parker letter to Alexander Woollcott, December 1940, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

282 IT TURNED OUT : Hellman, An Unfinished Woman, p. 87.

282 THE RICH AND FAMOUS: Hellman,
Pentimento. A Book of Portraits
, Little, Brown and Co., 1973 (New American Library edition), pp. 102-3.

283 THE LOYALIST CAUSE: Leland Stowe letter to author, September 15, 1982.

284 I COULDN’T IMAGINE: Dorothy, Parker, “Spain, For Heaven’s Sake!” (originally titled “Who Might Be Interested”), Mother Jones, February/March 1986, p.42; Parker, “Not Enough,”
New Masses
, March 14, 1939, pp. 3-4.

284 DOTTIE PARKER IS HERE: Martha Gellhorn, “Guerre de Plume,” The Paris Review, Spring 1981, pp. 280-301.

284 ALL DAY LONG: Parker, “Not Enough,”
New Masses
, March 4, 1939.

284 SHE PREFERRED NIGHT RAIDS: Parker, “Incredible, Fantastic ... and True,”
New Masses
, November 23, 1937.

285 THEY DON’TCRY: Parker, “Spain, For Heaven’s Sake.” Mother Jones, February /March 1986.

285 DESCRIBING HER TRAVELS: Hellman, An Unfinished Woman, p. 88.

285 DESPITE
HER
COJONES:
Lillian Hellman’s first writings about the Spanish Civil War appeared two years after Dorothy’s death. In 1981, Martha Gellhorn published a long article in The Paris Review, accusing Hellman of substituting fiction for fact, and combed newspaper clippings and her own notes from the period in an attempt to show that Hellman’s stories were apocryphal. Hellman, Gellhorn charged, had written a great part for herself throughout. “She is the shining heroine who overcomes hardship, hunger, fear, danger—down stage center—in a tormented country.”

In 1980, Hellman had filed a defamation suit against Mary McCarthy for calling her a dishonest writer, but she failed to sue Gellhorn, whom she said had written the article out of pique because Hellman had been “not pleasant” to her in
An Unfinished Woman
.

285 MISS H. BROUGHT NOTHING: Gellhorn, p. 296.

285 SHE GAVE NEWSPAPER INTERVIEWS:
New York Post
, October 22, 1937.

285 YOU KNEW DARN WELL: Parker interview, Columbia University Oral History Research Office.

285 AT PARTIES :
Mother Jones.

285 IN PIPERSVILLE: Author’s interview with Lei Droste Iveson.

285 SHE IMAGINED: Dorothy Parker letter to Alexander Woollcott, September 2, 1942, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

286 DEAR MISS KENNEDY: Dorothy Parker letter to Sheelagh Kennedy, November 1937, Spanish Refugee Collection, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Libraries.

287 SHE MANAGED TO GET A LAUGH: New York Herald Tribune, December 4, 1937.

287 PERELMAN WAS CURIOUS: Perelman, The Last Laugh, pp. 186—7.

289 IN A LETTER : Alan Campbell letter to Toni Strassman, April 1938.

289 AS ALWAYS: Dorothy Parker letter to Sheelagh Kennedy, March 21, 1938, Spanish Refugee Collection.

289 KOBER LATER CLAIMED: Richard Moody,
Lillian Hellman, Playwright
, Pegasus Division of Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1972, p. 113.

289 HER WORK HABITS: Author’s interview with Budd Schulberg.

290 AND THEN WHAT: Author’s interview with Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett.

290 AT A PARTY: Writers Guild of America West News, March 1982.

290 YOU COULD HAVE: Dorothy Parker interview, Columbia University Oral History Research Office.

290 NOW LISTEN : Ibid.

290 TO AN INTERVIEWER : Ibid.

291 ONE DAY, SHE LOOKED OUT: Siegfried M. Herzig letter to author, January 31, 1983.

291 A REPORTER ASKED HER: New York Times, “Miss Parker Never Poses,” January 8, 1939.

291 SHE INSISTED : Richard Lamparski interview with Dorothy Parker.

292 IF YOU HAD SEEN: Time, January 16, 1939, p. 55.

292 TWENTY-FIVE YEARS LATER: Richard Lamparski interview with Dorothy Parker.

292 THOUGH THE WORLD: William Rose Benét letter to Dorothy Parker, May 15, 1939, Spanish Refugee Collection.

292 MEANWHILE, DOROTHY WENT ON: Dorothy Parker letter to Evelyn Ahrend, May 19, 1939, Spanish Refugee Collection.

293 NOT UNTIL 1942: Dorothy Parker note to Marshall Best, The Viking Press, received August 21, 1942.

293 DOT, CHARLES MACARTHUR REMARKED: Janet Flanner letter to Alexander Woollcott, ca. 1939-1940, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

294 PRESENTS, SHE GROWLED: Cooper, p. 112.

294 WHY IS IT : Parker, “One Perfect Rose,” The Portable Dorothy Parker, p. 104.

295 THE WHOLE WORLD: Alan Campbell letter to Ruth and Augustus Goetz, undated.

295 DOROTHY PERKED UP: Dorothy Parker telegram to Helen Grimwood, June 16, 1939.

295 JOHN DAVIES THOUGHT: John Davies letter to author, December 12, 1979.

296 HELEN WALKER ALSO NOTICED: Author’s interview with Helen Walker Day.

296 THAT SUMMER, JANET FLANNER: Janet Flanner, Paris Was Yesterday, 1925-1939, The Viking Press, 1972, p. 220.

296 ALAN IMPRESSED HELEN: Author’s interview with Helen Walker Day.

297 ALAN ADMITTED: Alan Campbell letter to Alexander Woollcott, August 1939, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

297 KNOWLEDGE OF THE FIBROIDS: Dorothy Parker letter to Alexander Woollcott, December 1940, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

298 HE WAS ASTONISHED: Alan Campbell letter to Alexander Woollcott, December 1940, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

298 CONVALESCING: Dorothy Parker letter to Alexander Woollcott, December 1940, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

298 ROBERT BENCHLEY DESCRIBED HIM: Robert Benchley letter to Gertrude Benchley, December 29, 1940, Mugar Library, Boston University.

299 THE POOR SON-OF-BITCH: Frank Scully, Rogues Gallery, Murray and Gee, 1943, p. 269.

299 SHE HAD MADE POSSIBLE: Author’s interview with Albert Hackett.

299 BENCHLEY TOLD THE MURPHYS: Robert Benchley letter to Sara and Gerald Murphy, July 1, 1937.

300 SCRATCH AN ACTOR: Author’s interview with Albert Hackett.

300 WHAT AM I DOING WITH HIM: Author’s interview with Ruth Goetz.

300 WHAT AM I DOING IN HOLLYWOOD: Author’s interview with Albert Hackett.

300 IT’S THE CURVED LIPS : Author’s interview with Henry Ephron.

300 GROWING RECKLESS: Author’s interview with Ruth Goetz.

300 SAID RUTH GOETZ: Ibid.

301 DOROTHY HAS BEEN HEARD TO SAY: Sid Perelman letter to Ruth and Augustus Goetz, April 10, 1940.

302 RUTH GOETZ CALLED HIM: Author’s interview with Ruth Goetz.

302 SID PERELMAN, SPECULATING: Sid Perelman letter to Ruth and Augustus Goetz, April 10, 1940.

302 SHE BITTERLY DESCRIBED:
Writers at Work
, p. 75.

303 SHE WAS, AFTER ALL: Brendan Gill,
Here at The New Yorker
, Random House, 1975, p. 264.

303 CLEARLY HER SO-CALLED FRIENDS: Prescott, p. 7

304 NEGLECTING TO MENTION: Harold Guinzburg letter to Dorothy Parker, July 12, 1937.

304 TO ALAN,: Harold Guinzburg letter to Alan Campbell, July 12, 1937. Even though Dorothy felt no need of a literary agent, some of the tasks that an agent ordinarily handles were taken care of by Harold Guinzburg or Alan. In his agent role, Alan tended to be quite haughty. When, for example, a biographical dictionary asked for information, he forwarded the request to Toni Strassman at Viking with a disdainful note saying that he simply could not imagine his wife writing “an informal, first-person autobiographical sketch of about five hundred words.”

304 GOD DAMN IT: Parker, New Masses, March 14, 1939.

305 HE “THOUGHT IT WAS A SCREAM” : Dorothy Parker letter to Helen Bugbee, March 24, 1939, in Mother Jones, February/ March 1986, p. 41.

305 THEIR VILLAGE: Parker, “Soldiers of the Republic,” The Portable Dorothy Parker, p. 168.

306 SHE SAID: Dorothy Parker telegram to Harold Guinzburg, April 25, 1938.

306 HE SCOLDED HER: Harold Guinzburg letter to Dorothy Parker, April 27, 1938.

306 HE HAD SENT HER: Harold Guinzburg letter to Dorothy Parker, November 3, 1936.

307 THE MAN SAID: Hellman,
An Unfinished Woman
, p. 188.

307 IN THE SUMMER OF 1941: Robert Benchley to Gertrude Benchley, July 2, 1941, Mugar Library, Boston University.

307 ON HER BIRTHDAY: Dorothy Parker letter to Harold Ross, August 22, 1941.

308 “MY,” DOROTHY REMARKS: From Saboteur.

308 SHE CALLED HIS VALUES: Dorothy Parker to Alexander Woollcott, September 2, 1942, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

308 I WAS TOO GREEN : Author’s interview with Helen Deutsch.

309 SHE WOULD JUST HOLD OUT: Author’s interview with Joseph Bryan.

309 OUR OLD FRIEND DOTNICK: Sid Perelman to Ruth and Augustus Goetz, December 1941. Prudence Crowther, editor of
Don’t Tread on Me : The Selected Letters of S.J. Perelman
, dates this letter March 1942.

310 NOW THE WHOLE WORLD: AIItllOr’S interview with Sally Foster.

310 WE WERE WORKING VERY HARD: Author’s interview with Henry Ephron.

311 SHE ASSURED ALECK: Dorothy Parker letter to Alexander Woollcott, September 2, 1942, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

311 AFTER CONFUSING THE ISSUE: Ibid.

311 HER PHILOSOPHY: Ibid.

Fifteen: The Leaking Boat

312 RELATIONS WITH HER SISTER: Dorothy had difficulty imagining her sister’s life. After Helen separated from Victor Grimwood and considered renting a small apartment in Manhattan, Dorothy was full of encouragement. She sent her a check to have “a little fun” but wondered if Helen really wished to live in the eighteen-dollar-a-week room she described. It sounded “dreary” to Dorothy, who instead recommended the Fairfax Hotel, where she could have “a great big room that sort of divides itself into a sitting room, and a sort of kitchenette—at least, with a nice ice-box, so you could give people a cocktail.” (Dorothy Parker letter to Helen Grimwood.) The rates at the Fairfax were probably beyond Helen’s means because in the end she decided to live with her daughter.

312 DESPITE HER COMPLAINTS: Ibid.

312 HER NIECE LEL: Author’s interview with Lel Iveson.

313 SHE WAS DETERMINED : Dorothy Parker letter to Alexander Woollcott, September 2, 1942, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

313 HE LATER JOKED: Harold Ross letter to Marc Connelly, September 22, 1942.

314 FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS: Author’s interview with Thomas Guinzburg.

315 ALAN LATER RECALLED: Alan Campbell letter to Alexander Woollcott, in “P.S. He Got the Job,” As You Were, The Viking Press, 1943, p. 637.

316 DESPITE HIS PRECONCEIVED NOTIONS: Joshua Logan, Movie Stars, Real
Peo
.
ple, and Me,
Delacorte Press, 1978, p. 250-1.

316 THEY WERE TERRIBLY INTIMATE: Author’s interview with Joshua Logan.

316 A BELOVED LITTLE MOUSE: Logan, p. 251.

317 WE HAVE THE ROUND TABLE: Gaines, p. 237.

317 HARPO MARX: Harpo Marx, Harpo Speaks!, Bernard Geis Associates, 1961, p. 432.

317 DOROTHY, SEATED: Ted Morgan,
Maugham
, Simon and Schuster, 1980, p. 472.

318 HIGGLEDY PIGGLEDY: Parker untitled verse, in W. Somerset Maugham, “Variations on a Theme,” introduction to
The Portable Dorothy Parker
, p. 600.

318 ALTHOUGH DOROTHY LATER: Morgan, p. 473.

318 IN AN ARTICLE: Excerpt reprinted in New York Times Book Review, June 24, 1945, p. 21. On the Sunday that the excerpt appeared in the Times, Dorothy was to be a weekend guest at the Kaufman farm in Bucks County. Beatrice Kaufman, shortly before her death, thought the feud between George and Dorothy was silly and hoped to reconcile them. That morning, Dorothy saw the newspaper before George came down for breakfast. Dismayed, she tucked it under her arm and thumped back to her room where she locked it in her suitcase. Kaufman, upset over the disappearance of the paper, spent the morning interrogating the servants for clues to its whereabouts.

318 ON THE OTHER HAND: Parker, “The Middle or Blue Period,” Cosmopolitan, December 1944, in
The Portable Dorothy Parker
, p. 594.

319 PEOPLE OUGHT TO BE: Parker, “The Middle or Blue Period.”

319 WHEN SHE WAS NOTIFIED: Rosmond, p. 11.

320 AFTER BENCHLEY’S DEATH: Bruccoli, p. 181.

320 WHENEVER PEOPLE ASKED: Case, p. 60.

320 DOROTHY WAS HAPPY TO SPREAD: Richard Lamparski taped interview with Dorothy Parker.

320 THREE DECADES LATER:
New York Times
, October 27, 1979.

320 THOSE EYES: Benchley, p. 17.

321 BOB, DON’T YOU KNOW: Sheilah Graham,
The Garden of Allah
, Crown Publishers, 1970, p. 111.

322 HIS SON TIMOTHY: Author’s interview with Timothy Adams.

322 BRENDAN GILL RECALLED: Author’s interview with Brendan Gill.

323 WHEN SHE KNEW: Parker, “The Lovely Leave,”
The Portable Dorothy Parker
, p. 5.