Sunset Gun: Light Verse - Paperback

by Dorothy Parker (Author)

Now available as a stand-alone edition, the famous humorist's second collection of poetry ranges from lighthearted self-deprecation to gleefully acid-tongued satire and dark comedy.

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 debut poetry collection, Enough Rope, was a runaway bestseller, and she followed it up in 1928 with the equally delightful collection Sunset Gun. The poems gathered here range from barbed satires to light-hearted laments, all laced with Parker's unmistakable sense of humor, one that manages to be both cynical and sparkling.

Thought for a Sunshiny Morning
It costs me never a stab nor squirm
To tread by chance upon a worm.
"Aha, my little dear," I say,
"Your clan will pay me back some day."

Author Biography

DOROTHY PARKER (1893-1967) was born in New Jersey and grew up in New York. In 1916 she sold some poems to Vogue and was given a job at the magazine writing captions for fashion photographs and drawings. Parker went on to become 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 satiric gift in her book reviews for The New Yorker and Esquire and in her celebrated poems and stories.