Dorothy Parker in Hollywood

"[A] welcome effort to expand our view of the writer's career. The film industry's influence on Parker, as well as hers on it, is a juicy subject that's ripe for evaluation in our own screen-obsessed age." —Wall Street Journal

“This is a terrific book about a terrifying woman. Dorothy Parker broke boundaries, landed in the center of literary New York, and was seduced by the money and vanity of  Hollywood. She was witty and brilliant, but with a cruel streak that blossomed when she drank. She had so much talent, and such a lack of control. This is a lesson in fame an in the destructiveness of your own demons. I was hypnotized by it.”—Delia Ephron, author of Left on Tenth

“[A] briskly detailed, fluently insightful, and dramatically reorienting biography . . . An eye-opening reclamation and appreciation.” —Booklist, starred review

“Crowther thoughtfully considers Parker’s ambivalence about Hollywood through her poetry and fiction, failed romances, miscarriages, suicide attempts and activism. Parker was often abrasive, but Crowther considers Parker empathetically, as a sui generis who resisted becoming a cog in the filmmaking machinery.”—Los Angeles Times

“An ambitious, thoughtfully researched portrait of an often brilliant yet irascible talent.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Highly accessible . . . Parker continues to fascinate, and Crowther's biography is a welcome addition to the effort to understand such a complicated woman.” —Shelf Awareness