This is the first collection of critical essays devoted to the writing of Dorothy Parker. Its four-part organizations reflects a necessary shift away from her identity as primarily a humorist or Jazz Age literary celebrity. The essays offer readings of her poetry, fiction, and book reviews against the backdrop of our evolving notions of literary modernism and feminism. Parker speaks for herself in letters to Alexander Woollcott and in her widely known interview with Marion Capron for the Paris Review. Rhonda S. Pettit is an Assistant Professor of English and Women's Studies at the University of Cincinnati Raymond Walters College.
