Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) One Perfect Rose LINKS No links found. BIOGRAPHY Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) Parker was born in West End, New Jersey, to a Scottish Presbyterian mother and a Jewish father as "a late unexpected arrival in a loveless family." She was educated in private schools and moved in 1911 to New York, where she lived in a boarding house and earned her living by playing piano at a dancing school. In 1915 one of the verses she had been sending around was accepted by Vogue magazine and the editor later hired her to write captions for fashion illustrations. Her native wit captivated the editor, and he persuaded her to join Vanity Fair as drama critic, although she was fired when she wrote unfavorable reviews of several plays. She became the first woman among the regulars of the Algonquin Round Table—a group of writers who met regularly at the Algonquin Hotel in New York City that included Alexander Woollcott, George S. Kaufman, Robert Benchley, and Edna Ferber (among others). A master of irony and scathing wit, Parker, despite a troubled personal life that led to suicide attempts, flourished as a humorist, poet, short-story writer, playwright, and screenwriter.