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“In Senegal, the polite expression for saying someone died is to say his or her library has burned. When I first heard the phrase, I didn’t understand it, but over time I came to realize it was perfect. Our minds and souls contain volumes inscribed by our experiences and emotions; each individual’s consciousness is a collection of memories we’ve cataloged and stored inside us, a private library of a life lived.”
― Susan Orlean, The Library Book

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“The library is a gathering pool of narratives and of the people who come to find them. It is where we can glimpse immortality; in the library, we can live forever.”
― Susan Orlean, The Library Book

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“A room without books is like a body without a soul.”
― Marcus Tullius Cicero

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“Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book.”
― John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

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“There’s a hell of a distance between wise-cracking and wit. Wit has truth in it; wise-cracking is simply calisthenics with words.” – Dorothy Parker

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The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker

The Portable Dorothy Parker is a collection of a number of her verses (poetry), stories, essays, and journalism from one of the twentieth century’s most quotable authors. What makes this collection unique is that all the materials were selected and arranged in order by Mrs. Parker before it was published; which is unprecedented in a publication of this nature. This 613-page volume is a collection of some of her finest works, it is indeed well worth the investment in time to gain an insight into the heart, mind, and soul of one of America’s most talented authors.

From The Publisher:
For this new twenty-first-century edition, devoted admirers can be sure to find their favorite verses and stories. But a variety of fresh material has also been added to create a fuller, more authentic picture of her life’s work. There are some stories new to the Portable, “Such a Pretty Little Picture,” along with a selection of articles written for such disparate publications as Vogue, McCall’s, House & Garden, and New Masses. Two of these pieces concern home decorating, a subject not usually associated with Mrs. Parker. At the heart of her serious work lies her political writings—racial, labor, international—and so “Soldiers of the Republic” is joined by reprints of “Not Enough” and “Sophisticated Poetry—And the Hell With It,” both of which first appeared in New Masses. “A Dorothy Parker Sampler” blends the sublime and the silly with the terrifying, a sort of tasting menu of verse, stories, essays, political journalism, a speech on writing, plus a catchy off-the-cuff rhyme she never thought to write down.

The introduction of two new sections is intended to provide the richest possible sense of Parker herself. “Self-Portrait” reprints an interview she did in 1956 with The Paris Review, part of a famed ongoing series of conversations (“Writers at Work”) that the literary journal conducted with the best of twentieth-century writers. What makes the interviews so interesting is that they were permitted to edit their transcripts before publication, resulting in miniature autobiographies.

“Letters: 1905-1962,” which might be subtitled “Mrs. Parker Completely Uncensored,” presents correspondence written over the period of a half-century, beginning in 1905 when twelve-year-old Dottie wrote her father during a summer vacation on Long Island and concluding with a 1962 missive from Hollywood describing her fondness for Marilyn Monroe.

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“The vote is precious. It is almost sacred. It is the most powerful non-violent tool we have in a democracy.” – John Lewis, June 2019

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“We are one people with one family. We all live in the same house… and through books, through information, we must find a way to say to people that we must lay down the burden of hate. For hate is too heavy a burden to bear.” – John Lewis

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“Even if you cannot change all the people around you, you can change the people you choose to be around. Life is too short to waste your time on people who don’t respect, appreciate, and value you. Spend your life with people who make you smile, laugh, and feel loved.”
― Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

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Something To Think About:

Muhammad Ali when asked how he would like to be remembered said:
“He took one tablespoon of patience, one tablespoon of generosity, one pint of kindness; he took one quart of laughter, one piece of concern, and then he mixed willingness with happiness. He added lots of faith, and he stirred it up well. Then he spread it and expanded it over a lifetime.”

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