This week Dorothy Parker Complete Broadway, 1918-1923, turns ten years old. It is almost hard to believe that a book I researched for five years has been out for a decade. As I say when I give talks about the book, here are 150,000 words by Dorothy Parker you never read. Such as: “If I were to tell you the plot of the piece, in detail, you would feel that the only honorable thing for you to do would be to marry me,” she wrote. Here is a sample review from 1921.

When the book was published, I was still working on the project with Parker’s family and the NAACP to return her ashes from Baltimore to Woodlawn Cemetery. I got that accomplished in 2020 and a gravestone the following year. I remember when I was writing the book that I was still waiting on the Baltimore part of that caper. Perhaps I need to update the introduction?

Dorothy Parker Complete Broadway, 1918-1923, is a book I am proud is on so many bookshelves. I consistently hear from readers who enjoy it. I have talked multiple times to David Leopold, Creative Director of the Al Hirschfeld Foundation, who has a copy and appreciates the reviews Parker wrote. Because it is one thing to know the name John Barrymore or Will Rogers, but here is a critic who sat in a dark theatre and saw them in person.

In 2016, the late Robert Gottlieb, out of the blue, wrote a long and very warm overview of Parker’s writing life for the New York Review of Books. He read and cited my book (and included first) “Books drawn on for this article.” That boosted sales and got the collection some needed attention.

If I could say anything about this book ten years on, it is that I am very happy to introduce this material to the world. It existed only on hard-to-read microfilm I had to transcribe, edit, and correct. And footnote, which took five years. I am even proud of the cover photo, and I was the first to use this one on a book jacket. I licensed it from the New York Public Library. It also was misidentified and I knew the photo was taken in 1924 at 412 West 47th Street, not on Long Island.

If you want the book in hardcover or trade paperback, please walk into any independent bookstore and order it. It is distributed by Ingram. All online sellers have it.