Best Seller
Death and Taxes
Paperback
$14.00
Available on Mar 16, 2027 | 64 Pages
The famous humorist’s classic collection of poetry, ranging from lighthearted self-mockery to gleeful dark comedy—now available as a stand-alone edition.
One of the Jazz Age’s most beloved poets, Dorothy Parker earned her reputation as the wittiest woman in America with her popular light verse, which was regularly published in Vanity Fair, Life, and The New Yorker. Her first two poetry collections, Enough Rope and Sunset Gun, were runaway bestsellers, and she followed them in 1931 with the equally delightful collection Death and Taxes, featuring barbed satires and light-hearted laments that showcase her unmistakable sense of humor.
The Flaw in Paganism
Drink and dance and laugh and lie,
Love, the reeling midnight through,
For tomorrow we shall die!
(But, alas, we never do.)
The Very Rich Man
He’d have the best, and that was none too good;
No barrier could hold, before his terms.
He lies below, correct in cypress wood,
And entertains the most exclusive worms.
The Fisherwoman
The man she had was kind and clean
And well enough for every day.
But, oh, dear friends, you should have seen
The one that got away!
One of the Jazz Age’s most beloved poets, Dorothy Parker earned her reputation as the wittiest woman in America with her popular light verse, which was regularly published in Vanity Fair, Life, and The New Yorker. Her first two poetry collections, Enough Rope and Sunset Gun, were runaway bestsellers, and she followed them in 1931 with the equally delightful collection Death and Taxes, featuring barbed satires and light-hearted laments that showcase her unmistakable sense of humor.
The Flaw in Paganism
Drink and dance and laugh and lie,
Love, the reeling midnight through,
For tomorrow we shall die!
(But, alas, we never do.)
The Very Rich Man
He’d have the best, and that was none too good;
No barrier could hold, before his terms.
He lies below, correct in cypress wood,
And entertains the most exclusive worms.
The Fisherwoman
The man she had was kind and clean
And well enough for every day.
But, oh, dear friends, you should have seen
The one that got away!
Author
Dorothy Parker
Dorothy Parker was born in West End, New Jersey, in 1893 and grew up in New York, attending a Catholic convent school and Miss Dana’s School in Morristown, New Jersey. In 1916 she sold some of her poetry to the editor of Vogue and was subsequently given an editorial position at the magazine, writing captions for fashion photographs and drawings. Parker then became a drama critic at Vanity Fair and the central figure of the celebrated Algonquin Round Table. Famous for her spoken wit, she showed the same trenchant commentary in her book reviews for The New Yorker and Esquire and in her poems and sketches. Her collections of poems include Not So Deep as a Well and Enough Rope, which became a bestseller, and her collections of stories include Here Lies. Parker also collaborated with Elmer Rice on a play, Close Harmony, and with Arnaud d’Usseau on the play The Ladies of the Corridor. She had two Broadway productions written about her and was portrayed as a character in a third. Her cynicism and the concentration of her judgements were famous, and she has been closely associated with modern urbane humor. Her first husband was Edwin Pond Parker II, and although they were divorced some years later, she continued to use his name, which she much preferred to her own of Rothschild. Parker’s second husband was actor-writer Alan Campbell. They went to Hollywood as a writing team and had a tempestuous marriage until his death in 1963, when she returned to New York. Parker died in 1967.
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