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Tuesday, August 23, 2022

Happy Birthday, Dorothy Parker

 

A slightly belated Happy Birthday to the late short-story writer, poet, screenwriter and critic, Dorothy Parker, who was born on 22 August 1893.

Currently I’m undertaking the mammoth task of cleaning out my plan cabinets and have just come across some dog-eared copies of this book plate, a linocut made as a birthday gift for a friend way back in 1987.

It incorporates Dorothy Parker’s poem, INVENTORY:

“Four be the things I am wiser to know:
Idleness, sorrow, a friend, and a foe.

Four be the things I'd been better without:
Love, curiosity, freckles, and doubt.

Three be the things I shall never attain:
Envy, content, and sufficient champagne.

Three be the things I shall have till I die:
Laughter and hope and a sock in the eye”.

Looking again at the image after many years, I’ve just realised the clock, vase, cocktail shaker and one of the two cocktail glasses are still in my possession. 

POSTSCRIPT:
Coincidences certainly abound today. I’d just finished posting the above on my social media pages when Shane brought in the mail. My London-based friends, Bev and Roger Murray, have sent me the attached article, clipped from the 9 July edition of The Times. 


Click on images for a clearer view.