The Timelessness of Edith Wharton & Dorothy Parker

Two NYC writers are celebrating milestones this year -- many decades after their deaths. Both are women, both were trailblazers in their times, and both are legends today.

First, Edith Wharton. One of the most successful writers of her era, Wharton was born in NYC in 1862 to a wealthy family. She was a debutante, loved traveling the world, and eventually settled in Paris. She never published anything until she was 40, but then published many acclaimed books like The House of Mirth and Summer, as well as novellas and short stories. But her masterpiece, her most acclaimed work, the one that has enshrined Wharton's legend, is The Age of Innocence. Celebrating its 100th birthday this year, the novel was published when Wharton was nearly 60 years old and won the Pulitzer Prize. The plot concerns a wealthy lawyer named Newbold Archer in 19th century NYC who is set to marry a kind, dull woman named May but finds himself falling in love with a woman named Ellen who is fleeing a bad marriage from a Polish count. This is probably the most powerful, painful story ever written about unfulfilled love and passion, of romantic roads not taken, of the choices we make and avoid. The book was turned into a big movie in 1993, directed by Martin Scorsese, who called it, believe it or not, one of the most violent stories he ever directed. You should read this great analysis of the novel, the film, and what it's like to read this 19th century story, written in the 20th century, now in the 21st century. 

Next, Dorothy Parker. She was an all-around writer -- essays, reporting, poetry, screenplays, plays, and short stories. Born in New Jersey in 1893, she lived and died in NYC in 1967. She wrote constantly, about everything, for everyone, and was a key member of the Alquonquin Roundtable. She had many wild love affairs and marriages, becoming a very notable wit -- "Men seldom make passes to girls who wear glasses" is probably her most famous quote. Among Parker's most notable works: she wrote the script for the original 1937 move A Star is Born, remade many times, most recently with Lady Gaga. She was also an activist: upon her death, she left all her money to the NAACP. And in death she kept being a riot: her ashes spent years being passed around from a crematorium to lawyers' offices to a filing cabinet in Baltimore. Now Dorothy Parker is back in NYC forever -- her ashes were recently interred in Woodlawn Cemetry in the Bronx, joining a prestigious group of people in the afterlife. (Welcome home, Dorothy!) A movie about Dorothy Parker was made in 1994 with Jennifer Jason Leigh playing the lady herself. It's very funny!